Balancing tigers and humans next conservation challenge

Kathmandu, July 30: July 29 was marked as International Tiger Day, highlighting the importance of tiger conservation in maintaining a healthy ecosystem, raising awareness and support for ongoing conservation efforts.

According to the 2022 census, the country’s wild tiger population nearly tripled in the past decade from 121 in 2010 to 355 in 2022. Despite this remarkable success, the country continues to face challenges in managing habitats and addressing human-tiger conflict.

Tiger expert Dr. Chiranjibi Prasad Pokharel, Director of the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), said that with the growing tiger population, the main challenge now is ensuring human-tiger coexistence.

“The National Tiger Conservation Plan also emphasises the importance of conservation alongside coexistence as tiger numbers increase,” he said.

He added, “We now need to ensure that tigers remain within protected areas, while people stay within their settlements. To achieve this, the government should provide incentives to local communities and the protected areas must have enough prey to sustain the tiger population.”

Dr. Pokharel said that many people living in and around protected areas depend heavily on forest resources. “There should be arrangements like subsidies for these locals to prevent them from having to rely on the forest for their daily necessities,” he said.

Dr. Pokharel suggested that problematic tigers could be housed in a large, designated area under a tiger sanctuary approach. This would help mitigate conflicts and also generate revenue from the tourism sector by developing the area as a tourist site, he added.

Haribhadra Acharya, Senior Ecologist at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, said that Nepal's tiger population is an example of conservation success and is more than satisfactory, as the number of large wild cats nearly tripled over the past 12 years.

He added, “The next tiger census is scheduled for December 2025. It will help determine whether the population has increased or declined and will guide the next steps for tiger conservation.”

The country formulated tiger Conservation Action Plan for 2023-2032, which focuses on securing tiger habitats and corridors to support healthy movement and gene flow, combat poaching and illegal trade of tigers and their parts, reduce human-tiger conflict while promoting economic opportunities for local communities and strengthen institutional coordination and capacity, participating.

Until now, the protected areas are able to carry the tiger population and it is also based on the prey species and wetland management, Pokharel said. 

A study done by the NTNC and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) in 2018 revealed that Chitwan National Park could support around 125 tigers. This estimation was based on a prey density survey indicating a sufficient population of key prey species such as spotted deer, sambar deer, and wild boar. 

Another research conducted by WWF Nepal in collaboration with DNPWC in Bardiya National Park in 2019 showed that the park has a variable carrying capacity and can house around 70 individuals. 

Similarly, a study conducted by NTNC in 2020 in Parsa National Park found that the park could support up to 40 tigers. All the studies were conducted by utilising camera traps and prey density assessments to determine the suitable habitat areas and prey species population.

According to research conducted by the department, there are currently seven tigers per 100 square kilometres, but this area could support up to 14 tigers if the prey species are healthy.

According to the latest Tiger Census in 2022, CNP houses 128 tigers, BNP has 125, Banke National Park has 25, Shuklaphanta National Park has 36 and Parsa National Park has 41.