Chitwan National Park and Parsa National Park started counting prey species for tigers on Monday.

The national parks decided to study the status of prey species as they are declining in comparison to the number of tigers in Nepal.

Ten teams—six in the Chitwan National Park and four in the Parsa National Park—have been deployed for the purpose, according to Gopal Ghimire, information officer at Chitwan National Park.

Four teams have been deployed in Khagendra Malli and Kasara areas and a team each in Sauraha and Amaltar of Amalpur. Each team comprises six technicians and an elephant.

The teams, being led by Baburam Lamichhane of the National Trust for Nature Conservation and Prakash Uprety of Chitwan National Park, are applying two techniques to count the preys for tigers. The counting will be held using transit line and distance sampling techniques and fixed on the basis of per square kilometre, Ghimire said. “We will not be counting each and every animal,” he said.

Tigers prey on deer species, wild boar, among other animals. One tiger hunts around 60 animals in a year and eats 15-40kg meat at a time. An adolescent tiger needs around 50 prey species in a year.

According to a recent counting, there are 93 tigers in the Chitwan National Park. Thus, tigers need 4,650 counts of prey in a year.

Ghimire said the number of prey species should be increased at a time when Nepal is celebrating zero poaching of tiger every year.

However, it has been assumed that the number of prey species has been decreasing in comparison to the number of tigers in recent times.

Ghimire said that the counting will be completed in 15-20 days. Earlier, the counting of prey species was conducted along with the counting of the tiger population but the exact number of prey species could not be determined.