Owl Fest

It was an opportunity to get involved in Nepal Owl Festival 2016. Volunteering during the preparation phase, I didn’t think that the program would be as interesting and inspiring as it really was. Perhaps the preparations happened at ease. Generally in any event people are in a rush. This program surpassed my expectations may be because I didn’t see the organizers panicking before the event; they were experienced. This was the fifth Nepal Owl Festival at Kaski District, Sikles (~ 42 km from Pokhara) hosted by Friends of Nature (FON) in coordination with the local committee.

Sikles

Landscape

Owls

In Nepali, Owls are named ‘Latokoshero’ (small) and ‘Hucheel’ (large) depending upon the size. In common they are referred as ‘Ullu’. In Gurung community they call it ‘Faikuldu’.

Spotted Owlet

There are total of 225 different species of Owls in the world and 22 different types are found in Nepal among which Mottled Wood Owl was recently discovered. Owls play an important role for human beings particularly to farmers as they prey on the organisms like mouse which spoil the food crops. Furthermore, they maintain the ecosystem feeding on different small species as snakes, frogs etc. They are the night watchers; guardian when the earth is asleep. However, Owls are hunted and traded in a large scale.

Nepal Owl Festival 2016

Owl Festival is celebrated in The United States of America, Italy and in Nepal. The major goal is to aware people about the Owls and its importance in the environment. Apart from Sikles being such beautiful place itself, this year the major attractions during the event were:

• Local cultural dance and songs which were in the verge of being forgotten
• Local games which were almost extinct
• Poem and art competitions
• Owl museum
• Owl Robot
• Owl Mascot
• Wildlife dance by students of Institute of Forestry Pokhara
• Japanese Dance
• Face painting
• Nail Art
• National and Local conservation awards\
• Birdwatching competition
• General Birdwatching and Photowalk
• Lakhe and Gai Jatra

The Owl museum consisted of posters relating to owls, interesting information, photos, reports and news on owls, owl art and poems, preserved specimens, owl curios, owl robot, dart game,  owl call device which produced different sounds of owls, research equipment essential to conduct owl researches, numerous stalls by organization working in wildlife conservation etc.

Owl Museum

Raju Acharya, executive director at Friends of Nature said that this event will not fulfill its cause unless people stop killing Owls and illegally trading them.

The other side of Nepal Owl Festival

I am always fond of Nepalese culture. I wish we could have an annual national event where people from all cultural background come together to showcase their culture, similar to The World Culture Festival happening this March 11-13, 2016 hosted by The Art of Living foundation. Millions of people are expected to visit Delhi. What a site it will be at Delhi where people from all over the world come together to perform their thing. Benefit from tourism is another factor. Will you return without visiting Taj Mahal or Akshardham if you go to Delhi? Nepal has wider scope.

However, Nepal Owl Festival also helped in bringing forward the culture of Gurung people (majorly) in Sikles. Locals said that ‘Ghatu: a dance form’ was almost lost in the community. Similarly, ‘Jhijhili: a local game’ is very ancient and not in current practice. Most of the locals came in their traditional dress. People were excited to click photographs with the girls dressed in their traditional attire. I must say this event was also a mini version of World Culture Festival incorporating Nature and Wildlife Conservation. Sikles witnessed good tourism this February.

 Magnificence

Local Cultural Dance

It was mesmerizing to hear them sing and see them dance. Listening to ‘Aey Kancha and Bichodko Pida’ sung by local women, Brother Naresh Kusi drowning in emotion stated “Narayan Gopal’s song, it felt more pleasant to hear from these ladies than listening to Narayan Gopal himself”. I cannot deny.

Few links on news coverage

Aankhijhyal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqjV__KyhEQ

Naya pusta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ELRE5mFfCQ

Kantipur by Manoj Paudel: http://kantipur.ekantipur.com/printedition/news/2016-03-04/20160304093259.html

Fb page (FON): https://www.facebook.com/fonnepal2005/?fref=ts

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