Buffer zones around parks/reserves are designed to maintain ecological integrity and to ensure community participation in biodiversity conservation. We studied the fund utilization pattern of buffer zone programs, mitigation measures practiced, and attitudes of residents in buffer zone programs of Chitwan National Park, Nepal. The buffer zone committees spent only a small portion (13.7%) of their budget in direct interventions to reduce wildlife impacts. Human-wildlife conflicts were inversely related to investment in direct interventions for conflict prevention and mitigation. Peoples' attitudes towards wildlife conservation were largely positive. Most of the people were aware of buffer zone programs but were not satisfied with current practices. We recommend that buffer zone funds be concentrated into direct interventions (prevention and mitigation) to reduce wildlife conflicts. Our findings will be helpful in prioritizing distribution of funds in buffer zones of parks and reserves.

No abstract

Solar eclipse is a phenomenon that has a direct influence on the Earth's ionosphere • The measure of the decrease in vertical value of total electron content during the eclipse hours are correlated with the partial and complete obscuration of solar radiation • The scale of the reduction is closely associated with the eclipse magnitude

Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR) in eastern Terai of Nepal is believed to hold a relatively healthy population of vulnerable fishing cats but has remained unexplored. We conducted camera trapping and questionnaire survey in KTWR and its buffer zone in the winter of 2016 and 2017 to estimate the population status and threats to fishing cat Prionailurus viverrinus. Camera trapping was conducted in 2016 on fish farms in the eastern buffer zone where we found a minimum of nine fishing cat individuals visiting the surveyed fish ponds. The frequency of their visits to fish ponds varied 0–5 (average 2) nights during seven active camera trap nights. A survey in the second year (2017) covered the entire reserve.  Spatially Explicit Capture-Recapture models estimated a population of 20 fishing cats with density of 8.4/100 km2 in KTWR and the eastern buffer zone. We interviewed 50 fish farmers to understand the people’s perceptions towards fishing cats. More than 40% of the respondents reported fishing cats consuming fish from their farm. Retaliation and road kills were documented as major threats of fishing cats in the study area. The population of the fishing cat is found dependent partially on fish ponds, indicating the possibility of conflict with fish farmers. We recommend the detailed study on the movement of fishing cats between the reserve and fish farming area in the buffer zone.

In this paper, we estimate the seismogenic energy during the Nepal Earthquake (25 April 2015) and studied the ground motion time-frequency characteristics in Kathmandu valley. The idea to analyze time-frequency characteristic of seismogenic energy signal is based on wavelet transform which we employed here. Wavelet transform has been used as a powerful signal analysis tools in various fields like compression, time-frequency analysis, earthquake parameter determination, climate studies, etc. This technique is particularly suitable for non-stationary signal. It is well recognized that the earthquake ground motion is a non-stationary random process. In order to characterize a non-stationary random process, it is required immeasurable samples in the mathematical sense. The wavelet transformation procedures that we follow here helps in random analyses of linear and non-linear structural systems, which are subjected to earthquake ground motion. The manners of seismic ground motion are characterized through wavelet coefficients associated to these signals. Both continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) techniques are applied to study ground motion in Kathmandu Valley in horizontal and vertical directions. These techniques help to point out the long-period ground motion with site response. We found that the long-period ground motions have enough power for structural damage. Comparing both the horizontal and the vertical motion, we observed that the most of the high amplitude signals are associated with the vertical motion: the high energy is released in that direction. It is found that the seismic energy is damped soon after the main event; however the period of damping is different. This can be seen on DWT curve where square wavelet coefficient is high at the time of aftershock and the value decrease with time. In other words, it is mostly associated with the arrival of Rayleigh waves. We concluded that long-period ground motions should be studied by earthquake engineers in order to avoid structural damage during the earthquake. Hence, by using wavelet technique we can specify the vulnerability of seismically active region and local topological features out there.