Mount Everest may draw hundreds, if not thousands of people to Nepal each year, but it was the more remote regions that influenced Janardan Mainali '16M to study earth sciences. Nepal’s treacherous terrain affects more than just mountain climbers; it also impedes villagers’ access to basic elements like water. For his studies, Mainali was specifically interested in dynamics of natural resources and their inherent link to the people who live in the place he calls home.
Mainali, a Fulbright Scholar, began his master’s studies at UNCW in August 2014, and received a grant from the International Foundation for Science to fund his fieldwork in Nepal. “I was born and raised in a remote, hilly region of Nepal in an agrarian family,” he said, “and grew up observing change in the forests and farms around my house.” Following landslides, he said, “those barren lands were protected under the community forest regime and they are now full-fledged forests. That helped local people as they no longer had to walk long distances to collect forest products.”
As part of his master’s thesis in geoscience, Mainali collected data from 10 villages in his native Nepal to assess socioeconomic drivers of drought vulnerability in the Ramechhap district. “Thank you so much, UNCW and Wilmington, for being so accommodating to international students,” he said. “Thank you for making this journey so memorable. I will miss UNCW and Wilmington.”
Read more about Janardan at We Are UNCW.
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