Have you ever heard of the festival that is entirely dedicated for the conservation of owl in Nepal??

If not, I am here to present my journey from an eye of a volunteer on Nepal Owl Festival, 2019 organized by the Friends of Nature, a very reputed organization passionately working for the conservation of mother nature in Nepal.  Nepal Owl festival is the wonderful journey comprising the fusion of culture , conservation and entertainment.  Nepal Owl Festival 2019, had been schelduled on Jalapa , Khotang the eastern heart of Nepal. There were around 7800 participants including students from the owl conservation camps and general local people keen on witnessing the festival.  The main attraction of this festivals    were cultural shows that represented  the identity of many ethnic communities like Maruni, Lakhe, Selo, sanguine etc,  different bird related activities like bird watching, Nature photo walk,construction of owl park and also the face painting and nail painting that demonstrated the importance of owl.

The main striking feature is the construction of  temporary  Owl museum that demonstrated the importance of conserving owl through various mesmerizing arts and craft made up of Paper, iron, fruits, bamboo, wood, stone, clothes and many more.  The museum also displays many curios that signifies the importance of owl conservation.  There were a huge crowd being amazed with  lots of curiosity looking at every little things displayed in the temporary museum.

Different types of conservation competition were organized like poster presentation, school based competition  with  owl themed essay, poem, art and story, and nature conservation award was also provided to further encourage more hands on conservation of owls.

This festival has also been spiced up by the welcome song that elaborated the conservation of owl with local dance moves and owl mascot grabbing attention of the huge crowd. Similarly, the very captive flash mob on the illegal hunting and killing of this wonderful creature by the students of Institute of the Forestry , Nepal.  We can also see the different educational stalls from the organization like Bird Conservation Nepal, Himalayan Nature,  Pokhara  Bird Society with different booklets, posteres, books that summarizes the diferrent  ongoing conservational actions .

This festival also promotes the local culture and authenticity city through the stall that sells typical local products like woven baskets, musical instrument, Khukuri, the national weapon of Nepal, and some edible stuffs.As a volunteer, I am very fortunate enough to be guided by the leaders of Friends of Nature, Nepal. I got to learn to bring unique innovation while creating the awareness campaigns. Working from cleaning dust to constructing the breath taking temporary owl museum, I learned that maintaining conservation ethics and awaring many youth is not a single day works as Rome was also not built in a day.If you are in the Nepal between Jan and Feb, don’t forget to be the part of this prodigious event for the conservation of owl.