"Why is the International Canine Conference being held in Nepal?

prem bastola/ Rajendra Bhatt

Professor Hill Kobayashi will be putting his thoughts regarding new technologies that shall be used for wildlife monitoring. Arjun Shrivastav will be performing the red-list assessment. Martin Gilbert will be presenting about the disease caused to wild dogs and the preventive measures for such whereas Sujan Khanal will discuss the reasons behind human-dhole conflict and potential solutions. 

A week-long 'International Wild Dog Conference” will be held in Nepal organized by Dhole Working Group (DWG) under the Candid Specialist Group. 15 Dhole conservation activists working in the field of conserving dhole from around the world will be joining this conference starting from the 18^th of Jestha to 24^th of Jestha at Sauraha. National Nature Conservation Trust will be co-hosting this very conference and Nepal Foresters' Association will assist in making it a success.

Wild dog (dhole) found in South-Asian region is listed under endangered mammal after tiger in the IUCN Red list. As per the report of Dhole Working Group (DWG) under the Candid Specialist Group the density of dholes around the world is stipulated to be from the range of 4500-10500, out of which 989-2215 are expected to be adults. Various species of wild dogs are seen in especially in southern region of China, in India, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and in Indonesia. But, due to the lack of information regarding the distribution, density and reproduction of wild dogs, there was a confusion regarding the situation of this organism, mostly seen in South-East Asia. This confusion however will now be far away.

A week-long 'International Wild Dog Conference” will be held in Nepal organized by Dhol Working Group (DWG) under the Candid Specialist Group. 15 Dhole conservation activists working in the field of conserving dhole from around the world will be joining this conference starting from the 18^th of Jestha to 24^th of Jestha at Sauraha. National Nature Conservation Trust will be co-hosting this very conference and Nepal Foresters' Association will assist in making it a success.

What is Dhole Working Group?

IUCN has a group named “Special Survival Commission” under which specialists are chosen for various species. Under those groups, Dhole Working Group (DWG) is a group of life minded environmentalist working especially for the dholes. As of now, DWG has been working in conserving dholes under the Canid Specialist Group of ICUN. Nucharin Songsasen is the coordinator of this group who is involved with Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Currently, there are 19 people working in this group, out of which 15 will be joining the conference. Arjun Shrivastav and Girirsh Punjabi from Wildlife Conservation Society- India, Independent Consultant Bhaskar Acharya- India, Heike Maisch from Thüringer Zoopark Erfurt, Germany, Jan Kamler from Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, University of Oxford, Kyran Kunkel from Conservation Science Collaborative and University of Montana, Sheng Li from Peking University, Phuntsho Thinley from Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and Environment Research, Linnea Worsoee Havmoeller from Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Monsoon Pokharel Khatiwada from Research Unit of Biodiversity, University of Oviedo, Spain, Ambika Prasad Khatiwada from National Trust for Nature Conservation, Nepal, Patrick Roux from Reserve Zoologique de la Haute-Touche, France, Pallavi Ghaskadbi from Wildlife Institute of India, Martin Gilbert from Cornell Wildlife Health Center, Cornell University are in this group and various students, conservationists are assisting them in this campaign.

Workshop that happened in Thailand:

Keeping in mind the threatened situation of dholes, a workshop was done in Thailand for assessing the numbers of dholes and their habitat conservation.  After that, this conference is going to be the first huge conference for the conservation of dhole. The conference to be held in Sauraha is preparing a ‘Dhole Conservation Action Plan' by discussing the global situation of dholes, prey species management, habitat protection and other issues. The work plan developing via this conference will be world’s first work plan for the conservation of dholes.

International Wild Dog Conference- 2023

Member from Nepal for DWG and the coordinator of this conference Ambika Khatiwada says that this conference will be crucial for developing an important ecological system by allocating the numbers and census of dholes. “We will collect, update and catalogue the information regarding dhole from different countries to determine its distribution and develop a global perspective related to dhole” he says.

Another coordinator of the conference, Sujan Khanal says that the conference will work on the assessing and making error-free the various dimensions of human-dhole conflict, existing techniques for conserving dhole. Whilst Khanal has been active in dhole conservation for the last five years, Khatiwada has completed his masters’ degree in the study of dhole on 2010.

What will happen on the conference?

The mutual meeting and interaction of the representatives of different countries working on dhole conservation will make it clear about the various dimensions of dhole conservation. First day will have an introductory session whereas conservationists will be elaborating about the situation of dholes in their respective countries from the second day. Representatives from various countries will be publishing the information regarding the situation of dholes, numbers, distribution, availability of food and things to be done for the conservation of dholes in their respective countries.  A Red List of dhole as an endangered species will be made globally.

Dole conservationists Aakash Muntasir from Bangladesh, Tibidi from Bhutan, Guan Taipei from China, Girish Punajbi from India, Sandy Noervianto from Indonesia, Tan Cheng Cheng from Malaysia, Nwage Lwin from Myanmar, Ambika Prasad Khatiwada and Sujan Khanal from Nepal and Khwanrutai Charaspet from Thaliand will be present in the conference.

Professor Hill Kobayashi will be putting his thoughts regarding new technologies that shall be used for wildlife monitoring. Arjun Shrivastav will be performing the red-list assessment. Martin Gilbert will be presenting about the disease caused to wild dogs and the preventive measures for such whereas Sujan Khanal will discuss the reasons behind human-dhole conflict and potential solutions.

Forest and environment students working in the field of dhole conservation will also present a working paper at the conference. Molly Milson will be giving presentation about the record of the fossils used for the conservation of dholes, while Trishna Rayamajhi, Abhinaya Pathak, Mansoon Pokhrel, and Smriti Lama from Nepal will be presenting about their respective experience and the situation of dhole in Nepal.

In this conference, where dhole protection action planning and determination of dhole population world widely are kept in priority, the members of DWG will be having one-day visit of Chitwan National Park and Parsa National Park each. There will be an interactive discussion among the heads and conservationists of various community forests and of buffer community forests, as a part of the conference. This way, work plan for dhole conservation will be implemented in Nepal along with Bhutan, Thailand and India via conference.

Why is this conference being held in Nepal?

Based on geographical structure, India has larger number of dholes. But, the number of dholes is not more than 250 in any conservation area in the world. Having any rare species for more than 250 in numbers at a conservation area is considered as valuable population. There exists no threat of extinction in the place having valuable population. But unfortunately, there is no official information of having 250 dholes in any conservation area yet. Although Nepal is a small country in terms of area, dholes have been seen from Chitwan to Kanchenjunga. Dholes have been found in Nepal from the lowlands i.e., 67 metered Terai area to 5000 meters’ altitude. With the finding of dholes, the interest of dhole conservation activists to protect them is one big reason for conducting this conference in Nepal. Conservationists are however active in finding out the existence of dholes in various other areas.

The conference was set to be held in Bhutan earlier but it was not a success. “A tourist had to pay 400 dollars per day in Bhutan, resulting to very high expenses. When the discussion was going on about where to do it elsewhere, we said ‘we will do it in Nepal” said coordinator Khatiwada. He added that Nepal being the first among the range countries in terms of dhole conservation is also another reason for this conference to be in Nepal. “We are going to invite conservationists from all over the world to Nepal to make an action plan for the protection of endangered species, this is a pleasant moment for us” Khatiwada said.

Why Sauraha?

Coordinator Khanal says there is no exact reason to hold the conference in Sauraha. “Since the habitat of dholes is mostly in the forests around Sauraha, we are going to have the conference here with an intention to show dholes to the guests who come by. As the numbers of dhole is comparatively higher in Chitwan and Parsa of Nepal, the habitat, nature and characteristics of dholes can be observed closely”, he added, “Sauraha is just a venue, the concerned will be placed on the dholes from all around the world.”

Khanal further clarified about the conference happening in Sauraha also because the local organizer of the world-famous conference i.e., National Nature Conservation Trust, Biodiversity Conservation Center is in Sauraha. This organization has an important role to play in making conservation a success. Established by the King, this organization has been working for conservation since last 40 years and making Nepal well known around the world; getting to work with this organization is a pleasure” he said.

Future Course of Action:

Information regarding the numbers of dhole should be confirmed prior to making future action plan, as per Khatiwada. “Till today we only have a rough estimate of their population. We only know they were seen somewhere but we can yet not confirm about it. For instance, 1-2 students had asked to work on dhole and I agreed to it. Later they brought their report attaching the picture of wolf. This is why, collecting the enough information about dholes will be our very first action” he said.

Khanal told to had invited the heads of about 800-900 community forests. “We will be performing a social survey with them, for which we have also prepared questionnaire of 15 questions. We will be reporting about information as to where dholes were seen and their condition, via survey. After deriving the information from survey, we will work on collecting physical evidences as next step. By identifying the areas where dholes are found, we will gather information about the challenges to conservation and will be starting discussion for the required programs which address the issues. This way, we will reach to a concrete decision after the interaction. Thus, we have taken this conference as an opportunity” Khanal said.

He said that after making work plan for the dhole conservation, work shall be done both in capacity building and management of resources for safe habitat to increase the numbers of dholes. Along with this, Khanal also pointed out in the need of carrying forward the works related to conserving clean water resources and forest, capacity building to bear the consequences of climate change, making the best use of wetland areas, in parallel. Similarly, he expressed his confidence that through the conference, the number of dholes will increase globally in the next ten years and more than 250 dholes can be seen in Chitwan-Parsa and other areas.

He also shared his sorrow towards how instead of government who should have been showing interest in the global issues and protection of threatened species, only limited people are working for it. “Government should have made action plan on its own and should have moved forward with it, but it has not done so. As a result, a very limited people are bearing this responsibility; it is a sad part. The government should prioritize the conservation of dholes and help us or ask us for help. It would be wiser to save them in small numbers rather to show their remains” Khatiwada said.

He said that at this time when foreigners are paying special attention to wildlife conservation, it is necessary for Nepal to show the world that it is protecting certain species. “Financial assistance is required for conservation. It is not possible to do it on our own. If we could show them that we are protecting endangered species like dholes, we can possibly appeal them for help. Because the conservation of any animal anywhere in the world is good not only for that country but for the entire world” Khatiwada said.