The 35th Annual General Meeting of Bird Conservation Nepal was held on March 3 2018 at Hotel Moonlight, Paknajol Kathmandu.  The event was chaired by Mr. Yub Raj Basnet, President of BCN Executive Council and Mr. Hari Sharan Nepali ‘Kazi’ graced the event as the chief guest.

The preliminary session began with the opening remarks from Ms. Sabina Koirala Sharma, Member of BCN’s EC committee. Mr. Krishna Bhusal, Vulture Conservation program officer presented a Presentation on Captive Vulture Release into the wild and Telemetry tag study on Vulture in Nepal.  Mr. Jyotendra Jyu Thakuri, Senior Conservation Program Officer also gave a presentation on Common Bird Monitoring in Kathmandu Valley and Update of Demoiselle Crane Migration.  Following the long tradition of awarding birders recording new species, the certificate of appreciation was awarded to Mr. Sandesh Gurung and Dheeraj Chaudhary for recording Steppe Grey Shrike a . Mr. Anish Timsina and Mr. Dilk Bahadur Magar were awarded for recording Sooty Tern. With an aim to spread the message of conserving birds and biodiversity and motivate Local Conservation Users Groups (LCGs), BCN introduced Nepal Bird Conservation Network (NBCN) Grant on the event. The NBCN grant of amount Rs. One Lakh for this year was awarded to Pokhara Bird Society, Kaski Nepal and Jatayu Restaurant Management Committee, Gaidatal Rupandehi. Similarly BCN also honored Mr. DB Chaudhary with BirdLife’s Nature Heroes Award for his contributions to site and species conservation. The BirdLife International provides Nature’s Heroes to Community groups and individual volunteers for the outstanding conservation work done locally.

The second (closed) session chaired by President began with the presentation from Rajendra Gurung, General Secretary on Annual Progress of the organization and Annual Finance Report by Ashok Bahadur Malla, Treasurer EC (BCN).  The floor was open to the participants for the discussion on current progress and future endeavors of the organization. The session entered on New Executive Council Board election, a process that is exercised in every 3 years.  Senior Advocate Mr. Hom Raj Nepal, Election Officer announced the names of the unanimously elected Members.

The names of the newly elected Executive Council Members are:

President                                             Mr. Rajendra Gurung

Vice President                                   Prof. Karan Bahadur Shah

General Secretary                           Mr. Vimal Kumar Thapa

Joint Secretary                                  Mrs. Sarita Jnawali

Treasurer                                            Mr. Ashok B Malla

Members                                            Mr. Raj Kumar Rai

                                                           Dr. Prem Bahadur Budha

                                                           Mr. Ramesh Chaudhary

                                                           Mr. Umang Jung Thapa

                                                           Mrs. Sabina Koirala Sharma

                                                           Mr. Sudarson Karki