Nepal triples tiger population after conservation drive
Nepal has nearly tripled its wild tiger population, officials announced on Friday, in a victory for the Himalayan country’s efforts to help the big cats claw their way back from extinction. Human encroachment on habitats, deforestation, and poaching reduced tiger populations across Asia, but Nepal and 12 other countries signed a pledge in 2010 to double numbers by this year. Nepal is the only country to meet or beat the target and a survey in 2022 counted 355 of the creatures, up from around 121 in 2009.
Rezaul H Laskar
Less than two years after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, India’s then envoy to Islamabad, Sharat Sabharwal, was told by the Pakistan Army no action would be taken against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed since there was “no evidence” against him.
In his new book India’s Pakistan Conundrum, Sabharwal writes that he told a Pakistan Army interlocutor about the evidence provided by New Delhi on Saeed’s role but the interlocutor remained non-committal.
By that time, India and other countries had shared considerable evidence with Pakistan on LeT’s role in the three days of carnage in India’s financial hub that killed 166 people.
The attacks were carried out by a 10-member team that sailed from Karachi and sneaked into Mumbai. Ajmal Kasab, the only member of the LeT team to be captured alive, and other sources subsequently detailed Saeed’s role in the attacks.
Sabharwal writes in his book about a meeting in August 2010 with a senior Pakistan Army interlocutor, who gave him a four-point message, including that “the Mumbai terror attack was not authorised either by the army or the ISI leadership”.
“I referred to the evidence provided by India regarding Hafiz Saeed’s role but my interlocutor remained non-committal. The above was clearly a mixed message, with some reasonable sounding words, but also the usual harping on the so-called Indian interference and no intent to act against Hafiz Saeed,” Sabharwal added.
Sabharwal, who was the envoy to Pakistan during 2009-13, writes there was “much scepticism” in New Delhi even about the “reasonable words” of the Pakistani interlocutor.
Pakistani authorities have so far not taken any action against Saeed for his role in planning the Mumbai attacks despite mounting evidence of his personal involvement with the attackers.
wREAD THE FULL STORY: Former Pak envoy reveals chilling details