Wildlife Monitoring Backend (Fall 2026)
The Challenge
Nepal’s ecosystems, spanning tropical lowlands to high-altitude mountain zones — are among the most biodiverse and most threatened in Asia. Human settlement expansion, habitat fragmentation, and climate change are eroding these habitats faster than conservation organizations can respond. NIC is developing a wildlife collar capable of GPS tracking, cellular communication, and a low-power RF beacon, a collar already successfully tested in the field. What does not yet exist is the digital infrastructure to receive, store, and make sense of the data these devices will generate. Without a scalable backend, the collar is an island.
What You Will Work On
You will design and build the Phase 1 backend platform for Nepal’s first centralized wildlife monitoring system. This means architecting and implementing a secure API that authenticates multiple field devices by unique ID and receives their telemetry data reliably. You will design a database schema built for long-term scalability, one that can accommodate growing numbers of devices, diverse sensor types, and eventual front-end dashboards for researchers and conservation organizations. Resource monitoring, access control, and full technical documentation for handover are required deliverables.
Technical Challenges
Wildlife telemetry data arrives asynchronously from devices operating in areas with intermittent connectivity, so the backend must handle this gracefully without data loss. Designing for scale from the outset, building a security model robust enough for multi-organization access, and structuring geospatial and time-series data for complex future analysis (migration patterns, habitat use, conflict hotspots) are the core architectural challenges. The system must also be maintainable by a small team with limited infrastructure budget.
Our Partners
The Impact
A robust backend unlocks the full value of NIC’s collar hardware and creates a shared digital resource for Nepal’s conservation community. Researchers, park authorities, and policymakers gain access to real-time animal movement data, enabling faster responses to poaching, human-wildlife conflict, and habitat change, contributing to the long-term survival of Nepal’s most iconic species.