CHITWAN, Oct 25: The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation has started preparation to conduct a census of tigers in the national parks of Nepal in mid-November and mid-December. The census is conducted in the interval, which is calculated every four-five years.
The census is being conducted in Chitwan, Bardiya, Parsa, Shuklaphanta and Banke National Parks. According to Haribhadra Acharya, Chief Conservation Officer of Chitwan National Park, the months of November and December are considered suitable for conducting census as tigers come on the road during winter.
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He said, "Preparations have been made to complete the tiger census in December." Tigers are counted using the capture recapture method. A pair of cameras is placed on two-two grids i.e. four square kilometers at least for two weeks.
Chitwan and Parsa are being counted as one complex while Banke and Bardiya as the second complex and Shukla and nearby Laljhadi area as the third complex. According to the tiger census conducted in 2018, 235 adult tigers were found in Nepal. At that time, 93 tigers were found in Chitwan, 87 in Bardiya, 18 in Parsa, 16 in Shukla and 21 in Banke. This number is estimated to have increased lately.
Nepal had set a target to increase the number of tigers to 250 by 2022 at the Tiger Conference of the 13 countries in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2010. At that time, there were 121 tigers in Nepal's national parks. The authorities concerned are confident that Nepal's commitment to double the number of tigers will be fulfilled this year.
