A survey carried
out earlier this year counted 235 tigers in Nepal, up from around 121 in 2009. Conservationists
and wildlife experts used more than 4,000 cameras and around 600 elephants,
trawling a 2,700-kilometre (1,700-mile) route across Nepal’s southern plains
where the big cats roam.
“This is a result of concentrated unified efforts by the government along with the local community and other stakeholders to protect the tiger’s habitat and fight against poaching,” Man Bahadur Khadka, director general of Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, told AFP.
Deforestation,
encroachment of habitat and poaching have devastated big cat numbers across
Asia, but in 2010 Nepal and 12 other countries signed a pledge to double their
tiger numbers by 2022. The 2010 Tiger Conservation Plan – which is backed by
high profile figures including actor Leonardo DiCaprio – quickly began bearing
fruit, and in 2016 the World Wildlife Fund and the Global Tiger Forum announced
that the wild tiger population had increased for the first time in more than a
century.
In 1900, more than
100,000 tigers roamed the world but that fell to an all-time low of 3,200 in
2010. DiCaprio tweeted his support for Nepal’s success:
“I am proud of @dicapriofdn’s partnership with @World_Wildlife to support Nepal and local communities in doubling the population of wild tigers.”
Ghana Gurung,
country representative of WWF in Nepal, said the country’s progress was an
example for tiger conservation globally.
“The challenge now is to continue these efforts to protect their habitats and numbers for the long-term survival of the tigers,” he said.
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