The Nepal Snake Festival (NSFest) was initiated in 2023 with the aims and objectives to conduct the various awareness programs regarding biodiversity conservation primarily focusing on species of snakes, human-snake conflicts mitigation, snake conservation and snakebite management in Nepal. The NSFest team is a group of young, enthusiastic and dedicated snake conservationists and snakebite expert’s team of Nepal. The NSFest was planned after having long experiences in this field to keep working together consistently. We have organized the first edition (Chapter 1) of Nepal Snake Festival (NSFest) in Kawasoti, Nawalpur district from 20^th – 21^st August 2023 with the slogan “Promoting Co-existence between Humans and Snakes”.

The festival was featured by other allied events such as Various Awareness Stalls, Educational Documentary Shows, Face Painting, Cultural Dance Show, Drama Show, Museum Specimen of Snakes Display, Professional Snake Handling Methods, Puja and Mantra Chanting, Questions and Answers, Interviews, Poster Presentation, Herping, Photo Exhibitions, Art Competition Award Ceremonies etc. It was expected around 1,000 people (500 each day) including school students and locals from different regions will visit our festival but more than 5,000 visitors have visited and gained the knowledge from this in two days festival. Although most of the visitors were locals but the visitors from Eastern Nepal to Western Nepal were also attended this festival. The representatives from different government bodies and international organizations were also visited our programs. This was probably the first of its kind in Nepal that we have organized the snake festival from which hundreds of people benefited which definitely may help to make a positive change in people’s perception towards snakes and overall biodiversity.

We celebrate Nepal Snake Festival (NSFest) in; Nag Panchami (Nepali religious/cultural festival), World Snake Day or Snakebite Awareness Day