Blogs - Jeevan Rai

A Rant on Kathmandu’s Air Pollution

Kathmandu was again on the top of the list on the most polluted cities globally. I could feel it in my lungs and with my eyes. The air, laden with smoke and dust, burnt my nose, and the atmosphere was eerily similar to movie scenes just before a big disaster. To tackle the issue, the…
Two y-axes in R

Recently, I had to plot two axes in a single graph. Like always, I googled. Countless solutions but most of them were not what I was looking for. These worked. But I didn’t want a complicated solution. Finally, two sources worked for me. However, I had to modify these codes to meet my needs. So,…
How to write functions in R? The shortest version

Lets create a function to add two numbers in R add <- function(a,b){ a+b} Thats it. 🙂 add(1,7) [1] 8
How to collapse Detection History for Occupancy Analysis?

Recently a friend of mine asked me if I could help him collapse his detection history. He want to make 5 days as a single occassion. You might want to do this for vairous reasons. The most important one is that you want to get your detection probability higher. Suppose you detected your species once…
Simulation for Sites and Replicates for Occupancy

“How many camera traps should I put?” “How many days should I leave my camera traps for?” Usually when people are doing occupancy estimates, these are the questions that many have. I had one. One way to answer this is doing simulations. So, I tried. I tried 1000 simulations for three conditions. 1. Low occupancy…
My part in Global Pollution

I saw these tweets on my feed. It made me realize how bad we really are doing. As I was wondering, I had a very unpleasant realization. That could have been because of me. I might be the reason why a wolf had its head stuck in a plastic jar, a stork was trapped with…
Darchula Calling

We (me and Kaushal) were once again on the roads. After 40 hours of continuous bus ride, we reached Khalanga, headquarter of Darchula, with our butts sore, heads cranky, and legs swollen. Prem uncle met us later that day and helped us know about the route. His help would come very handy later on for…
Why you should carry a notebook and record everything you see?

I carry a notebook with me every time I go anywhere out of Kathmandu valley. Although, I can not record everything I see, I try to record as much as possible. Birds make my number one priority as I am very much into them. Here are five reasons why you should do that too. 1.…
First Ever South Asian Conference on Small Mammals

Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundation, SMCRF for short, hosted the first ever “South Asian Conference on Small Mammals” in Nepal from August 27 to 29, 2017. Researchers, experts, and policy makers from ten countries were there. I was lucky to participate in the event. It was probably also the first conference in Nepal that…
My Goldstar Journey: Made in Nepal

I have been wearing Goldstar shoes for a long time now. They are comfortable, cheap and super durable. They have also come up with trendier models targeting the youths now. I have worn them all around Nepal. From my first trip to Humla to short hikes up in Shivapuri, they have served me well. However,…
Chulo Puja: A Ritual of Kirants

This year on my journey to eastern Nepal, I got to see Chulo-Puja of kirant community for the first time in my life. Even though I am a kiranti, I had never seen one. Kirant is one of many indigenous communities in Nepal. One key belief among our community is that ancestors are our protectors…
Rara Lake

Have I ever dreamed of going to Rara? Hell yeah! Rara was always on my top of to-do list. And when I did go to Rara, I didn’t want to come back.
Make way for the Owls!

If you are a Nepali, add another list on your things to be proud of: Nepal Owl Festival. Yup, Owl festivals are held every year in Nepal by Friends of Nature (FON) and there are only three nations in this whole wide world that hold one. Every year mostly on the month of February, owls…
Goodbye 2016! Hello 2017!!

It is already 2073 in my country. However, the festivities of 2016 has caught on the world. So, I decided to have a look back at my 2016. It was a great year for me. Travelled a lot. Learnt a lot. Like all optimistic out in the world, I had some resolutions for 2016. Here…
Encounter with the King of the Jungle: Tigers, humans and conflicts

I always wanted to see tigers in the wild. When I saw one, I have revised this desire to “I want to see tigers in the wild from a very very safe distance.” Our gang of four were on a mission to collect information about wild elephants in Madi, Chitwan. We were going door to…
Treasure Hunt in the Bush

If you ask me what is the most beautiful bird that i have ever seen, without any hesitation, i will answer Siberian Rubythroat. Though i have yet to see many birds, i doubt my answer will change in future. After joining CDES for my masters degree, i used to wander around in TU coronation garden…