Tigers are threatened with extinction. Animal protection organizations such as the WWF are all the more pleased that the number of big cats is increasing again. In Nepal in particular, authorities are seeing a significant increase in the population. However, the danger to humans is a concern for many.
According to official figures, Nepal has almost tripled the number of wild tigers it has in the past decade. The latest census found 355 tigers in the wild, Nepal’s National Parks and Species Conservation Agency said at an event marking World Tiger Day. In 2009 only 121 tigers were counted. The big cats are threatened with extinction, but according to the WWF environmental foundation, their worldwide numbers are slowly increasing again.
“If local communities, governments and nature conservation organizations pull together, then the protection of the tiger from extinction will succeed,” said Michael Zika, Asia expert at the environmental foundation WWF Germany. But: “As much as we are happy about the new figures from Nepal, the largest cat in the world remains a critically endangered species.” With the results that have now been published, Nepal has achieved a goal that tiger states in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Russia and China set themselves in St. Petersburg 12 years ago: to double the number of tigers by the Chinese “Year of the Tiger” in 2022. Nepal was the second country to achieve this goal after India, a WWF spokesman said.
By far the most tigers lived in India, around 3000 animals. According to the latest figures available to the environmental foundation, there are around 4,500 free-living tigers worldwide. Achievements in tiger conservation can also be celebrated in Bhutan, China and Russia, but the situation in Southeast Asia remains worrying. The predators are threatened by poaching, habitat loss and declining numbers of their prey.
Nepal counted its tigers in both 2009 and 2022 with 1,000 camera traps in the animals’ habitat using the same counting method over a period of around five months, said tiger expert Chiran Pokharel from Nepal’s National Parks and Species Conservation Authority, who was at the latest census was involved. The two counts also included dozens of elephants and their drivers, who carried wildlife officials, veterinarians, security guards and supplies through the forest. Elephants are used in places where cars cannot go and they also protect the meters from attacks by other animals such as tigers or rhinos that are afraid of the big elephants.
But the increase in the number of endangered tigers is not only met with joy in Nepal – among other things with many people who live right next to the tiger habitats. At least 62 people have lost their lives in tiger attacks in the past three years, according to authorities. Ascending trend. “We don’t know how many tigers our forests can accommodate well and whether there is enough prey for tigers,” said Thakur Bhandari of the Federation of Community Forestry Users, which works to address the concerns of forest residents in Nepal. Bhandari accuses his government of being more interested in an increase in tigers than in the often poor people who live around forests and sometimes lose their relatives because of tigers or are themselves threatened.
A spokesman for the Wildlife Protection Agency said that it is aware of the problem of tiger-human conflict and will pay compensation to the victims’ families and cover the costs of treatment for those injured. The government also has training programs for forest residents so that they can learn jobs that save them a trip into the forest and reduce the risk of tiger attacks. Some tigers that attack humans would also be caught and taken to zoos. In Nepal, the government is also aware of the importance of tigers for wildlife tourism.