Bengal tigers roar louder

Kathmandu – Nepal’s wild tiger population has nearly doubled over the past nine years, officials said yesterday, in a victory for the country’s drive to save the endangered big cats.

Wildlife groups have welcomed the news as a sign that political involvement and innovative conservation strategies can reverse the decline of the majestic Royal Bengal tiger.

A survey carried out earlier this year counted 235 tigers in Nepal, up from about 121 in 2009.

Conservationists and wildlife experts used more than 4 000 cameras and about 600 elephants, trawling a 2 700km route across Nepal’s southern plains where the big cats roam.

“This is a result of concentrated unified efforts by government, along with the local community and other stakeholders, to protect the tiger’s habitat and fight against poaching,” Man Bahadur Khadka of Nepal’s department of national parks and wildlife conservation, said.

Deforestation, encroachment of habitat and poaching have devastated the tiger numbers across Asia, but in 2010 Nepal and 12 other countries signed a pledge to double their tiger numbers by 2022. –