The tiger population in Nepal has increased from 121 in 2009 to 355 in 2022. The big cats are mainly found in five national parks across the country
Nepal has managed to more than double its tiger population in the last 10 years, bringing them back from the brink of extinction. However, this has come at a cost to local communities, with an increase in tiger attacks, according to the BBC. “There are two feelings when you come face to face with a tiger,” says Captain Ayush Jung Bahadur Rana, a member of a unit tasked with protecting them. “My God, what a magnificent creature…».
Now he often sees, he says, Bengal tigers on his patrols of the open plains and thick bush of Bardiya, the largest national park in Nepal’s Terai region.
It is true that the return of tigers has created dangerous situations for the lives of people on the borders of the park. “The community lives in fear of attacks,” says Manoj Gutam, eco-business entrepreneur and environmentalist. “The common space shared by tigers, game and humans is so narrow. There is a price the community has paid for the world to rejoice that Nepal has doubled its tiger population».
In the last 12 months, 16 people have been killed by tigers in Nepal. Most of the attacks occurred when villagers went to the national park or dead zones to graze their cattle or collect fruit, mushrooms and wood.
In some cases, tigers have ventured out of national parks, attempting to enter local villages. There are fences to separate the wildlife from the people, but the animals have managed to get through.
A century ago, there were about 100,000 wild tigers scattered across Asia. By the early 2000s, that number had declined by 95%, largely due to hunting, poaching and habitat loss. Today, there are believed to be 3,726 to 5,578 tigers left in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The Bardija region, which covers 968 square kilometers (374 sq mi), became a national park in 1988 to protect endangered wildlife. The area was once a royal hunting reserve. In 2010, 13 tiger-bearing countries pledged to double their wild tiger populations by 2022 – the Chinese Year of the Tiger – in a bid to bring them back from the “cliff”. Only Nepal has so far achieved the target.
The tiger population in Nepal has increased from 121 in 2009 to 355 in 2022. The big cats are mainly found in five national parks across the country. Other species, such as the rhinoceros, elephant and leopard, have also increased.
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