National
Tiger census postponed until November 30
The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) has postponed the tiger census by two weeks because of the upcoming provincial and federal elections.Chandan Kumar Mandal
The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) has postponed the tiger census by two weeks because of the upcoming provincial and federal elections.
The census, jointly planned by authorities in Nepal and India had been originally scheduled to start from the second week of this month, will now start on November 30. “As most of the officials are being deployed for the upcoming elections, there won’t be enough hands around for conducting the census. Therefore, we have decided to postpone it until November 30,” said Man Bahadur Khadka, director general at the department.
This is the first time that the two countries are conducting a joint tiger census using the camera trapping methodology to rule out chances of overlapping.
“Tiger counting is a trans-boundary issue. We have decided to do counting simultaneously to avoid duplication as tigers roam around, crossing the border,” added Khadka.
The Chitwan National Park (CNP), which is home to the highest number of tigers in Nepal, and the Parsa National Park (PNP) are adjacent to the Balmiki Tiger Reserve in the Indian state of Bihar. Likewise, the Bardiya National Park and the Shuklaphanta National Park share boundaries with India’s Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary and Dudhwa Tiger Reserve respectively.
Meanwhile, the Indian side has already started the tiger census, according to the DNPWC. “We had discussed the matter with the concerned authorities like local levels and district election commission offices before making the decision. It wouldn’t immensely affect the results,” said DG Khadka.
The officials have announced that this year’s tiger counting will start from the PNP, which was recently declared as a national park, and move on to other protected areas later.
Nearly 2,000 cameras will be installed for the purpose in forests and protected areas in Nepal. The possible habitats of wildcats will be divided into 1,900 grids of four square kilometres. Each grid will have at least a pair of cameras to track the movement of tigers. These automatically operated high-tech cameras with infrared sensor captures any movement that passes in front of them.
The total cost of the census is estimated at Rs30 million. Human resources from the DNPWC, National Trust for Nature Conservation, World Wildlife Fund, Nepal Army, and representatives from the buffer zone committees, among others, will be mobilised for the tiger counting.
According to the last tiger census conducted in 2013, there were 198 adult tigers in Nepali protected areas, of which 125 were spotted in the CNP.
As per the global commitment to the Global Tiger Recovery Plan, endorsed during St Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation in 2010, Nepal is working to double its tiger population up to 250 or more by 2022. For this, Nepal has endorsed the ‘Tiger Conservation Action Plan for Nepal (2016-2020)’.