Pratik Bhattarai

Tiger, Panthera tigris, is the largest member of the cat family Felidae. It is well-known for its dark vertical stripes on orange-brown fur with a lighter underside. It is listed as endangered species on the IUCN red list category. According to the 2015 data, the global wild tiger population was estimated to be between 3,062 and 3,948, with most of their remaining population occurring in small pockets isolated from each other. Major reasons for their declining numbers are habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, illegal hunting, and poaching. The Indian Bengal Tiger is the most common species found in Asia and accounts for about half of the global tiger population.

As per the commitment to the Global Tiger Recovery Plan (TX2), which was endorsed by 13 countries that are home to wild tigers, during the 2010 Saint Petersburg Declaration, Russia on Tiger Conservation, Nepal has been working to double its tiger population up to 250 or more by 2022 from its base tiger population around 125 that year. There were 198 tigers in the country according to the survey in 2013 and it has been increased to 235 in the year 2018. Among them, Chitwan National Park and Bardiya National Park were the most preferred habitats with numbers 93 and 87 respectively.

Similarly, Banke National Park had 21, Parsa National Park had 18, Shuklaphanta National Park, and its nearby forest had 16 wild tigers according to the 2018 report of DNPWC. The national survey of wild tiger population is conducted in every four years in Nepal. The current growth of the tiger population is a notable achievement for our country. This significant increase in Nepal’s tiger population is proof that when we work together, we can save the planet’s wildlife and even species facing extinction. Despite some increasing evidence of human-tiger conflict in recent time, Nepal has been able to achieve good progress towards tiger conservation.

The human transformation of the landscapes and ecosystem for residential purposes, farming, and infrastructural development has fragmented wild habitats. Human activities have restricted their movement, migration, reproduction, and breeding pattern. The human victims are people collecting firewood and fodders from the forest and poorly secured housing located near or adjacent to the forest. The crux of the problem for rural communities in Nepal is primarily due to increased dependency on forests and lack of awareness about sustainable use among people.

In the end, the cost of conflict is always a loss so we should act to change conflict to collaboration. Appropriate mitigation measures and conservational strategies should be implemented to minimize such conflict issues. The success in Nepal has been largely attributed to the country's commitment and the adoption of innovative tools and approaches towards tiger conservation. 

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Nepal has been a pioneer and the largest contributor along with corporate donors and some non-governmental organizations for tiger conservation. Every tiger counts for Nepal and for the world and this has been possible from the unities and joint efforts of government, enforcement agencies, conservation partners, and the role of local communities. If these trends continue, then Nepal could become the first country to double its wild tiger population by 2022.