Gopal Khanal
Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation
Babarmahal, Kathmandu. PO Box: 480
khanal.joshipur@gmail.com | gopal.khanal@nepal.gov.np
​Phone: +977-9861315357
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About Me

Welcome to my personal website!  Currently, I work for the Department of National Park & Wildlife Conservation as an assistant conservation officer. I have an MSc degree in Wildlife Biology & Conservation from National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore India. For my masters thesis, I studied the relative influence of snow leopard, it's wild prey blue sheep and livestock density on livestock depredation by snow leopard in Shey Phoksundo National Park, Dolpa, Nepal.

I am broadly interested in understanding factors affecting distribution and abundance of large mammals, focusing on mountain landscapes in the Nepal Himalayas. I use a multi-disciplinary approach to answer applied research questions and inform evidence-based conservation solutions.

I  completed my Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Forestry from the Tribhuvan University, Institute of Forestry (IOF), Pokhara Campus, Nepal. For my B.Sc. thesis, I investigated the potential of multi-use forests in complementing existing protected areas (PAs) to achieve the tiger recovery goals as a case study from the Western Terai Arc Landscape, Nepal. 

Publications

Lamichhane, S., Khanal, G., Karki, J. B., Aryal, C., & Acharya, S. (2020). Natural and anthropogenic correlates of habitat use by wild ungulates in Shuklaphanta National Park, Nepal. Global Ecology and Conservation, e01338. doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01338
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Khanal, G., Mishra, C., & Ramesh Suryawanshi, K. (2020). Relative influence of wild prey and livestock abundance on carnivore‐caused livestock predation. Ecology and Evolution. doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6815

Khanal, G., Poudyal, L. P., Devkota, B. P., Ranabhat, R., & Wegge, P. Status and conservation of the snow leopard Panthera uncia in Api Nampa Conservation Area, Nepal (2018). doi.org/10.1017/S0030605318000145
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Oli, C. B., Panthi, S., Subedi, N., Ale, G., Pant, G., Khanal, G., & Bhattarai, S. (2018). Dry season diet composition of four-horned antelope Tetracerus quadricornis in tropical dry deciduous forests, Nepal. PeerJ, 6, e5102. doi:10.7717/peerj.5102

Panthi, S., Khanal, G., Acharya, K.P., Aryal, A., Srivathsa, A., 2017. Large anthropogenic impacts on a charismatic small carnivore: Insights from distribution surveys of red panda Ailurus fulgens in Nepal. PLoS One 12, e0180978. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0180978

Khanal, G., Suryawanshi, K.R., Awasthi, K.D., Dhakal, M., Subedi, N., Nath, D., Kandel, R.C., Kelkar, N., 2016. Irrigation demands aggravate fishing threats to river dolphins in Nepal. Biol. Conserv. 204, 386–393. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.10.026

Updates

Aug 30, 2018: Our work on distribution and conservation status of snow leopard in Api Nampa Conservation Area, Nepal got published in Oryx . We corroborated the occurrence of snow leopard from this protected area and estimated the population status of wild prey blue sheep. 
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June 25, 2018: We found that four horned antelope, an endangered wild ungulate, shows the feeding plasticity to adapt the resource fluctuation based on dry season diet composition in tropical dry deciduous forests, Nepal. This study is published in peer reviewed open access journal PeerJ.
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July 14, 2017: Our recent paper on red panda published in PLOS ONE showed that despite being form of small scale subsistence based activities, livestock grazing and bamboo collection  in temperate forests of mid hill Nepal negatively influence distribution pattern of globally endangered species red panda, and their impact could be severe if not regulated well.
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Nov 11, 2016: Our paper published in Biological Conservation show that maintaining ecological flows in sync with sustainable fishery regulations is key to averting river dolphin declines in even not-dammed rivers like Karnali in Nepal. Press release!
rdt_pressrelease_12nov2016.pdf
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Media Coverage


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