19 year old conservationist, Ganesh Sah Sudi, is someone who has been relentlessly working for the protection of wildlife since 2015. He is working with Mithila Trust Fund and works for the welfare and protection of wild animals. Along with being a conservationist, he is also a passionate wildlife photographer and painter.
His Journey
Ganesh started the journey of wildlife protection through painting. He has loved painting and drawing animals as long as he can remember. This love for painting led him to an art competition held by Ministry of forests and environment where he was awarded with a silver Medal. He was only in 8th grade back then and it was then when he got connected with Mithila Wildlife Trust, an NGO working to protect wildlife and conserve the environment. “I used to go to the NGO every day after school where I researched about wildlife animals and learned photography. I got to know about the habitats and feeding habit of wild animals on which I was clueless about. I also did wildlife painting while I was engaged in MWT,” said Ganesh. His fascination towards wild animals was encouraged by MWT and he also started to actively engage in rescue and rehabilitation of hundreds of snakes and wild animals.
When Ganesh was more active in rescue and rehabilitation of wild animals, his family would get concerned. “Rescue and rehabilitation of venomous animals like snakes is no easy job. We need to take many safety measures to rescue them,” said Ganesh. Many of the locals are more interested in killing the lethal yet rare animals as they are a danger to the community but he believes they must be taken back to their safe zones. As human settlement is nearby Dhanushadham Protected Forest, there are frequent sighting of wild animals. This scares people but Ganesh feels that it a duty of humans to live in a harmony with wild animals.
Currently, Ganesh provides training on wildlife and their habitats and also provides service of catching snakes in settlement areas and take back to their safe zones. He and his team from Mithila Trust Fund also provide trainings on how wetland birds can help in agricultural purpose.
Glocal Teen Hero and his future plans
Ganesh was unaware about platform as such until the founder of Mithilia Wildlife Trust suggested him to apply. He believes events like GTH can get people more interested in wildlife conservation and works as such.
Ganesh has huge ambitions of being a world renowned photographer and wildlife conservationist. He wants to encourage the locals of his village to collectively start working on the protection of forests and animals. “In order to have balance in our ecosystem, we humans have a responsibility to conserve wildlife. If we are neglectant about it, we might face dire consequences in the future,” said Ganesh. He also wants to continue researching on wild animals and uncover secrets of nature and wildlife. He hopes to study Herpetology (the study of reptiles) in the future but economic hurdles come in his way. Nevertheless, he wants to continue his research on animals through internet.
Ganesh Sah Sudi was selected among the 20 brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers below the age of 20 in Nepal, for the year 2019. This annual list is the ultimate honor roll of young game changers reshaping Nepal for the better. The platform seeks to encourage the youths to share their initiation, creativity, and enthusiasm which will then motivate them and more of the other youths in the nation to develop an entrepreneurial thinking.
