Last week I visited one of my favourite places in Nepal. What was it that brought a smile to my face as captured in this picture by my colleague, Dev Narayan Mandal?

I was sitting next to the waterhole that we have excavated alongside our first Gurkha Memorial Forest (GMF-1) that we planted out two and a half years ago. The forest provides shelter and the waterhole sustenance for wildlife in a sparse and increasingly hot landscape. Dev has allowed the pond to become quite weedy as that deters the scavenging Little Cormorant (now seemingly resident) which would quickly clean out the native fish species given the chance. We want to encourage fish, insects and a wide range of birds. And amphibians! Just listen to the frogs that were serenading me from the weedy depths:

I could quite honestly sit at this spot for hours and, of course, when you do that the birds emerge to offer further delights. Like the shy Bluethroat that is a winter migrant to south Nepal. Dev photographed this chap while we were there – yes, it’s the male of the species:

We have purchased land sites for nine Gurkha Memorial Forests (GMFs) and planted out eight of them using the rapid-growth ‘Miyawaki Method’, in honour of nine Gurkha Victoria Cross (VC) winners since 1943 (the VC is the highest award for gallantry in The British Army). That leaves us needing four more forests to recognise similarly the heroism and sacrifice of all thirteen VC winners. The GMFs are a core element of the Dhanushadham wildlife corridor that we are creating between the wooded Chure Hills and the Dhanushadham Protected Forest to the south.

We can make this happen through successful strategic fundraising in the forthcoming Big Give ‘Earth Raise’ campaign that launches on the 22nd April. During the subsequent week all online donations will automatically double in value through matched pledges that we have secured beforehand. Our target for matched pledges is £50,000 and, with another £100 pledge received last evening (the minimum pledge as defined by the Big Give) we have reached £45,500.

The pledging deadline is 5 p.m. on Friday coming. If you can kindly help us towards finding the final £4,500, please go to the link below where it takes just a minute to register the pledge. Nothing is payable until after the appeal ends on the 29th April.

https://pipaltree.info/pledge

Thanks!