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Initiates Mikenia weeding out campaign
 
 

 
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In co-existence with the nature

 

Let’s save the environment and
save Mother Earth!

Study of Mikania in Chitwan National Park

By SEF Team (2007)

 

Copyright (C) 2008.
Save The Environment Foundation
All rights reserved.
E-mail: chandarana@mos.com.np
Website: www.save-the-environment.org

    
          P
RESS/ MEDIA

   

 

 

Parasitic weed destroying grassland habitats in Nepal

Posted on January 26, 2011 by The Extinction Protocol


               

January 25, 2011 – NEPAL – Chitwan, Nepal – Some 200 kilometers south-west of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, a non-native weed is rapidly destroying plants, with menacing implications for local wildlife. The South American native is locally known as banmara (forest killer) or “mile-a-minute.” It was first identified in Nepal in 1975. The weed grows about 2.5 centimeters a day and has covered large sections of the 932-square-kilometre Chitwan National Park. “It produces up to 40,000 seeds a day, which are scattered in the forest by various means,” said Chanda Rana, researcher and maker of the film Mile-a-minute – A serious threat to the Chitwan National Park. “If we don’t make collective effort within five years, about 50 per cent of the habitat will be wiped out.” Conservationists said the plant is one of the biggest threats to wildlife, besides poaching. The area is home to the rare one-horned rhino and the endangered Royal Bengal tiger. Nepal has been battling rampant poaching of the animals, especially the rhino, whose horn is prized in China for its alleged aphrodisiac qualities.    

The rhino population in Nepal stands at just over 400. More than 25 were reported dead in 2008-10. Nearly 100 were killed in 2001-02, when the country was at the peak of the Maoist insurgency. Two years ago, the government initiated a biological control campaign to check the weed’s growth. “We induced a gall fly in the plants that ate up nodes and checked the growth,” said Ram Babu Paneru, senior scientist at the Nepal Agriculture Research Council. “It worked to a point but lateral branches grew, so it was given up.” In January 2010, Rana initiated a campaign to eradicate the weed, which the prime minister joined. “The invasive plant is threatening the existence of flora, fauna and unique ecosystem of Chitwan,” Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said at the time. “It is high time all should participate in controlling the invasion of the wild weed.”

Source-http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com

 


Invasion of wild climber poses threat to rhino habitat in CNP

September 18, 2011


Invasion of a wild climber, which is also called Mikinia Micrantha, is posing a serious threat to the rhino habitat in Chitawan National Park (CNP) , Save the Environment Foundation (SEF) said.
In a press conference organised in Kathmandu Sunday, SEF founder Chanda Rana said the recent survey carried out by the Zoological Society of London found that 50 percent of the rhino have already been affected by the Mikania.


"During my filming I found one third of prime rhino habitat in the CNP were already engulfed by the infestation of the wild weed," said Rana who has recently produced a documentary called 'Mile a Minute, a serious threat to CNP', as an initiation to raise awareness regarding the impact of the wild climber.


Rana also informed that SEF will organise a national workshop in the second week of November at CNP which will have the participation of all the stakeholders on Mikinia infestation.
The SEF has also planned to arrange visit of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to some areas of the national park where infestation of Mikinia Micrantha is most severe. Source: nepalnews.com

 

 
 

Invasion of wild climber (Mikinia Micrantha) poses threat to rhino habitat

Posted on September 19, 2011

Invasion of a wild climber, which is also called Mikinia Micrantha, is posing a serious threat to the rhino habitat in Chitwan National Park (CNP), Save the Environment Foundation (SEF) said.


In a press conference organised in Kathmandu Sunday, SEF founder Chanda Rana said the recent survey carried out by the Zoological Society of London found that 50 percent of the rhino have already been affected by the Mikinia.


“During my filming I found one third of prime rhino habitat in the CNP were already engulfed by the infestation of the wild weed,” said Rana who has recently produced a documentary called ‘Mile a Minute, a serious threat to CNP’, as an initiation to raise awareness regarding the impact of the wild climber.


Rana also informed that SEF will organise a national workshop in the second week of November at CNP which will have the participation of all the stakeholders on Mikinia infestation.


The SEF has also planned to arrange visit of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to some areas of the national park where infestation of Mikinia Micrantha is most severe.

Source:envsolutions.wordpress.com

 
     
 

Campaign to save rhinos from notorious creeper

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Sept 18, A woman environmentalist, whose award winning documentary drew national and international attention into the invasion of a notorious weed in Chitwan National Park, is launching a programme shortly to save the threatened rhino habitat.


Infestation of fast growing alien vine Mikania Micrantha has affected 75 per cent of one-horned rhinos in the national park by destroying their habitat and food.


Chanda Rana, chairperson of the Save the Environment Foundation (SEF), said that she plans to initiate ground level action to control the creeper that grows six inches every day. She is launching the new phase of her project against the invasive weed to celebrate the World Rhino Day which falls on September 22.


Under the programme, Rana is organising a national workshop in Chitwan National Park gathering all the stakeholders. Participants brainstorming on the Mikania problem will include VDC officials, community forest user groups, bio-diversity conservationists, buffer zone representatives, national park officials and media persons.


Nepal army officials, representatives from Sauraha based hotels and nature guides, officials from the environment and forest ministries and their departments and conservation agencies including National Trust for Nature Conservation, Nepal Agriculture Research Council, IUCN and WWF will also participate in the three-day discussions.


The plan is to constitute a "Chitwan Mikania Control Taskforce" through the outcome of the workshop with the aim of controlling the spread of the wild vine.


The taskforce will be entrusted with reviewing the infestation, formulate local level education programmes, documenting the information on the scale of invasion, identify its impact on the local ecosystem and wildlife habitat.


"In the initial awareness part, I fought a lone battle against this serious problem. The documentary I made about the invasion has drawn the attention of the concerned people now. The new programme aims to build coordination for ground action," said Rana on Sunday.
Rana’s 35-minute documentary ‘Mile A Minute- A Serious Threat to Chitwan National Park’ won her the Environment Conservation Award for Women 2010 of the government.


The problem is so huge, it cannot be tackled through isolated efforts, said Rana. Without coordination of all the concerned agencies, we will reach nowhere, she said.


She plans to launch a pilot project with the involvement of the local communities to see what kind of control measure will be most effective to control the spread of Mikania vine. An area of the national park most severely affected by the weed will be selected for the purpose.


The pilot project will test the effectiveness of manual removal method  for a few years. If it turns out to be successful, it will be applied in other areas as well, Rana said.

Source: Gorkhapatra

 

 
   

 

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Last Updated On: 19 Swptember, 2011

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