With Nepal recently announcing that it has nearly tripled its wild tiger population, experts have stressed focusing on several "challenges" that lie ahead in maintaining the tiger population in the Himalayan country.
Nepal two weeks ago announced the results of the latest national survey, which revealed that in 2022, 355 tigers now roam in the country -- nearly triple the number in recent years. In 2009, the tiger count was 121.
Officials in Nepal maintain that it has "become the first country to double the tiger number."
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Bhagawan Raj Dahal, a renowned ecologist and conservation biologist in Nepal, identified habitat management, mitigating human-animal conflict and providing livelihoods to those dependent on the forests as future challenges while maintaining the tiger numbers.
"The most important thing is to promote human-wildlife coexistence in the buffer zones of the national parks. At the same time, we have to address the issue of climate change. A number of tigers have been sighted at high altitudes above 2,000 meters and tigers are looking for alternative habitats. So we need to do habitat management there as well," he said, adding there is a need to provide livelihoods to the people to minimize the number of people who are dependent on the forest where tigers are present.
If people are provided with livelihoods, forest resources won’t be disturbed and there will also be less human-animal conflict.
He said the government has already identified these challenges and is working in these areas.
Concentrated efforts
Sanjeevani Yonzon Shrestha, an environmentalist and director at Wildlife Conservation Nepal, a Nepal-based non-governmental organization working on the environment and wildlife, told Anadolu Agency that the increase in the tiger population in Nepal is due to "concentrated efforts in conservation, Banke National Park's establishment in 2010, and also includes more hi-tech and advanced technologies for counting."
"Another focus was on stricter monitoring for illegal wildlife trade and participatory conservation models...Youths and communities have been involved in conservation. Also countries with tiger populations can only achieve this (increase in population like Nepal) if they can work on a broader landscape and people participatory model in my opinion," she said.
She noted that the next challenge is "how to maintain a healthy population and minimize human-wildlife conflict."
"Population dynamics maintenance is a big challenge, and we need a bigger focus on human-wildlife conflict, infrastructure wise, compensation schemes and better monitoring of our tiger population.”
Dev Narayan Mandal, founder and chairman of the Nepal-based Mithila Wildlife Trust, termed it a great achievement nationally being able to almost triple the tiger population in Nepal.
"It's not just an increase in the number of tigers, it's increasing the overall habitat and prey species of the tiger, cracking down on the illegal wildlife poaching and illegal wildlife trade network, coordinating with local communities and involving them in conservation and also restoring the corridor between tiger habitats," he said.
"So when we talk about tiger conservation, we talk about conservation of the forest and the entire ecosystem. Community-based conservation approaches of Nepal have been very successful in restoring habitats and the wildlife population."?
Mandal said regular maintenance of grasslands in core forests and creating and maintaining waterholes are also among the major activities done by park staff to increase the number of prey species.
He said Nepal has successfully divided responsibility into three dimensions, including conservation inside protected areas, where park staff and the Nepal Army join together to ensure that no poaching takes place, and regular combined patrolling of both park staff and the Nepal Army.
"The second one is the local community. Community Forest User Groups (CFUG) work hard to restore diminished forest lands surrounding national parks and protected areas which provide extra space for the prey and thus additional habitats for the tigers. The third one is additional support provided by national and international organizations," said Mandal.
According to Mandal, the major challenge Nepal is awaiting is managing human-tiger conflict and providing safety to the communities residing in the buffer zones of protected areas and national parks.
"The community, who is the main contributor in tiger conservation, may oppose and will be bound to go against the increase of the tiger population if they are not secured within their residential area," he said. "Similarly, the changes in the day-to-day livelihood options of local communities due to the occurrence of tigers in their surroundings should be addressed by the authorities to tackle the human-tiger conflict."
Hard work
Ram Chandra Kandel, a top official of Nepal's Ministry of Forest and Environment, said it was the dedication at all levels which helped achieve the feat.
"We have also been able to successfully mainstream the local community in the protection through a benefit-sharing mechanism. We have been giving them some sort of incentives...They are involved in controlling illegal trade, the protection of wildlife, and operations against poaching," he said.
The Nepal Army is currently deployed in the national parks to protect wildlife.
Kandel said that while the efforts have resulted in an increase in the tiger population, now the country has to manage and maintain the population.
"We are already doing a lot of work, and we will continue to do so," he said, noting that people are happy with the recent results.
Asked if there has been an increase in the number of incidents of human-animal conflict, Kandel said that in the last one to two years, around 10 such cases were reported within the national parks.
"For that, we are making awareness among the people," he said.
Source: Anadolu Agency