NP - Nepal has 121 tigers but can they survive?

[Guest guest]

*BIZ BRIEF

**Tarai tigers*

 

FROM ISSUE #462 (31 JULY 2009 - 06 AUG 2009) |

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World Wildlife Fund stressed the need to renew tiger conservation efforts in

response to the government 's announcement of an estimated 121 breeding

tigers in four protected areas in the Tarai Arc Landscape of Nepal.

 

Chitwan National Park is still a stronghold for tigers, with an estimated

population of 91, Parsa Wildlife Reserve has an estimated four tigers,

Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve is likely to have eight tigers and Bardia

National Park has 18 according to Nepal's Department of National Parks and

Wildlife Conservation.

 

The results are the culmination of a nine-month research project that

surveyed tiger abundance and distribution in all of the protected areas

concurrently for the first time.

 

" What we have today is a snapshot of tiger populations in one corner of the

Eastern Himalayas, one of the last bastions of this endangered species, "

said Shubash Lohani of the Eastern Himalayas Program of WWF. " In the bigger

picture, the numbers from this survey are not strong enough to withstand an

ever increasing demand for tiger parts and derivatives. "

http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/issue/2009/08/1/BIZBRIEF/16172

 

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Lucia de Vries

Freelance Journalist

Nepal - Netherlands