Over the last 15 years, statistics reveal a remarkable decrease in the tiger population and prey base in the country and elsewhere after the loss of habitats due to human encroachment, rising poaching, and degradation of habitats in the country. Aggravated by the 10-year-long internal conflict, tigers in some of Nepal’s prominent protected areas have declined, and the main corridors set for restoration and conservation have been encroached upon, thereby threatening tiger habitate.
As per July 2009 figures announced by the DNPWC (Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation), there is a presence of 121 breeding tigers in the four protected areas of the country – four in Parsa, 91 in Chitwan, 18 in Bardia, and eight in Shuklaphanta. Moreover, a recent census suggested that there may be as few as 1,300 tigers left in India. Three national parks in that country – Panna, Boxa and Sariska – have reported complete tiger extinction.
In Nepal, Tiger conservation initiative dates back to early 1970s with the establishment of protected areas and conservation networks. Until the 1990s, the basic approach was on species and ecosystem conservation. But the scope of conservation work over the last 15 years has expanded through the creation of buffer zones and Tarai Arc Landscape (TAL) program directed to bring local communities into mainstream conservation, control poaching, restore and maintain tiger habitats, create and manage corridors between core refuges, promote trans-boundary cooperation, especially with India and China, rebuild tiger prey base, and reverse the decline in tiger numbers.
The government has announced its Tiger Conservation Action Plan 2008-12 targeted to increase the tiger population by 10% within the five year period of the plan implementation. The recently prepared country profile sates that the main goal is to conserve a viable tiger meta-population in the TAL with the objective to increase tiger population to at least 250 adults by 2020 and manage as a metapopulation with trans-boundary genetic and ecological linkages; maintain, restore and conserve at least 6,500 kms of additional tiger habitats in the TAL as high quality tiger habitats outside the protected areas, including dispersal corridors for ecological connectivity, and reduce national and international trade of tiger parts and products and control poaching to a level that does not threaten the viability of wild tiger population in Nepal.
The government delegates are also to advocate for effective regional cooperation and CITES (Convention for Illegal Trade in Endangered Species) implementation against tiger poaching at the upcoming Global Tiger Forum scheduled to begin on October 26 in Kathmandu. For a week, conservation experts, high-level government officials and representatives of I/NGOs will deliberate on seeking state and donor commitments for the much needed tiger conservation.
“The conference would be attended by 14 tiger range countries and it would be a big opportunity to formulate an agenda for the Tiger Summit at the end 2010 to be attended by the heads of states,” Shiva Raj Bhatta, the spokesperson of DNPWC told myepublica.
Based on three major themes – habitat, population and trade – the seminar is to come up with technical recommendations to be taken up at a ministerial meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, in January. “It is now important to seek donor and state commitments to advance our agenda forward,” Bhatta added.
Of the eight original tiger sub-species, only five sub-species, namely Royal Bengal tiger, Amur tiger, South China tiger, Sumatran tiger, and Indo-China tiger, are present in 14 range countries, which include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
“The target is to increase the habitat by 12%, which could see tiger population increase to 6,000 by 2020,” Bhatta said, adding, “It is alarming that of the original census some 50 years ago, only 7% of the total tigers remain.”
One of the main aims of the Forum would also be to seek China’s commitment in tiger preservation. China is not a member of CITES and has advocated for legal tiger skin farming.
Trade in tiger parts is also considered one of the most time consuming affair due to difficulty in tracing the poaching sites.
“Since every part of tiger is sold at high prices in international markets, poachers hardly leave any trace behind. This makes our job doubly challenging,” a NA officer said.
Government records also indicate that poachers take to either trapping or poisoning methods to kill tigers to keep the skin intact.
“The poachers use fine mechanical traps or poison the tigers to make use of every body part,” the source said, adding, “Most poachers come from India.”
Although Nepal’s direct contribution to the international trade market is at the minimum, Nepal is said to be used as an easy route for storing, transporting and transferring of tiger parts. Most body parts are exported to China, and the skins go mostly to Tibet.
Related story
Human-Tiger Coexistence Amidst Rising Tiger Population
