A female tiger was found dead inside Chitwan National Park on Sunday. It was the fourth time a tiger was found dead inside the park and its adjoining community forests in a month.

The tiger was found 3km west from the park’s East Sector Office in Sauraha. Abinaya Pathak, the park’s assistant conservation officer, said the three-year-old tiger had deep gashes in its neck and abdomen area, suggesting that it had suffered those injuries in a fight with another tiger.  

On April 19, a male tiger was found dead at Panchakanya Community Forest in Ratnanagar Municipality, Chitwan. The body was recovered on the northern part of the community forest, 100 metres away from the dumping site of Rantanagar Municipality.

According to District Forest Officer Kedarnath Paudel, another rare male tiger was also found dead in the same community forest on March 21. Nurendra Aryal, the park’s information officer, said that it is unclear why the park tigers are fighting.

The recent tiger deaths have dealt a serious blow to the country’s tiger conservation efforts, said Jitu Lama, the coordinator of Tiger Conservation Sub-committee.

Nepal has committed to double its tiger population to at least 250 by 2022.

Accoriding to the 2013 census report, there are 198 tigers in the country and 120 of them are in Chitwan.

The results of the latest tiger census conducted in November 2017 are yet to be out.