Chief at the Climate Change Division under the Ministry of Forest and Environment Maheshwor Dhakal said that Nepal is on positive path in tiger conservation to meet the commitments made in 2010 but many challenges lie ahead.

He said that maintaining the habitat, human-tiger conflict, trafficking and illegal trade, climate change and COVID-19 are challenges for the conservation and protection of tigers.

“There should be grassroots level teamwork among national bodies for the conservation and protection of tigers,” Dhakal told to The Rising Nepal.

Bishnu Prasad Shrestha, information officer at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), said that Nepal is on course to become one of the first tiger range countries to fulfil its commitment and achieve the target of doubling tiger population by 2022 reports daily.

He said that Nepal set this target during the Global Tiger Summit in Russia in 2010 when Nepal’s tiger population was 121 at the time.

As Nepal celebrated International Tiger Day Yesterday along with across the globe to raise awareness about the declining number of tigers and make commitments and efforts to save them from going extinct, Nepal has proudest moment.

According to the latest census in 2018, there are 235 breeding tigers in Nepal and the country is all set to become the first of 13 range countries to double its tiger population by 2022 reports the paper.

According to According to the 2018 census, Chitwan National Park is the largest habitat of tigers, registering 93 big cats. Bardiya is the second-largest habitat of tigers, where 87 tigers were counted. Banke National Park is home to 21 tigers, Shuklaphanta National Park is home to 16 tigers and Parsa is the habitat of 18 tigers.

According to The Rising Nepal, this study was conducted on a special request by the Government of Nepal to establish a method for estimating tiger ecological carrying capacity (ECC) of a site and provide a baseline ECC estimate of tigers in the Chitwan-Parsa Complex, a priority tiger conservation landscape.

The approach and estimate would then help the government to develop appropriate management interventions to conserve the optimum number of tigers over the long term, the report said.