The Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) has condemned harassment, manhandling, and threats to journalists in Banke and Chitwan districts in recent incidents.
CHITWAN, March 4: A man-eater tiger that killed five people in Banke district in a period of a month, has been brought to the Chitwan National Park (CNP).
The work of the tiger survey in Chitwan National Park and surrounding areas has been completed under the National Tiger Survey 2078 BS.
According to Dr. Baburam Lamichhane, head of the National Nature Conservation Fund, Sauraha, the survey is being conducted in all the areas of Parsa, Bara and Rautahat Division Forest Office except Pratappur of Parsa from the first week of January. He shared that 300 pairs of cameras have been placed in those areas.
Surveys will be carried out in Shuklaphanta and Laljhadi areas with the help of cameras and after surveying all the areas, data will be collected.
The survey started from Chitwan by dividing Chitwan and Parsa into three blocks. Camera trapping work has been completed in the first and second blocks and work has started in the third block. Every four square kilometers of the area is surveyed by assembling a pair of cameras on a grid. According to Ganesh Prasad Tiwari, Assistant Conservation Officer and Information Officer of the park, camera trap, range finder, GPS and record firm have been used in the survey.
The photos collected by the camera are now being stored on laptops and computers. He informed that after the completion of the survey work in all three blocks, the team including experts will collect the photos taken from the camera in one place and get the final result through software.
It is estimated to cost around Rs. 40 million.
After the photo study, the statistics are planned to be made public on the occasion of World Tiger Day on July 29. According to the 2018 Tiger Census, 235 adult tigers were found in Nepal. At that time, 93 tigers were found in Chitwan, 87 in Bardiya, 18 in Parsa, 16 in Shuklaphanta and 21 in Banke. This number is expected to increase.
Nepal had pledged to increase the number of tigers to 250 by 2022 at the 2010 Tiger Summit of 13 Heads of State in St. Petersburg, Russia. At that time, there were 121 tigers in Nepal.
A technical team from Sauraha in Chitwan has reached Raptisonari, an area where the tigers are prowling, terrorizing the people in Raptipari of Banke every day.
A three-member technical team led by Amir Sadaula, senior technician of the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NRNC), has reached Fattepur in Raptisonari and started searching for the man-eater, said Dadhi Lal Kandel, chief of Division One Office in Banke.
KATHMANDU, December 5: The fourth census of the rare Royal Bengal tiger is starting today from Chitwan National Park and Parsa National Park. The census is being held by making the two national parks a single block.
The tiger census is being kicked off amid a special event at Sauraha of Chitwan National Park today at the presence of Minister for Forest and Environment Ram Sahaya Prasad Yadav and other high-level officials as well as the representatives from development partners.
Director General of the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation Dr Ram Chandra Kandel said that another separate block would be made by including Bardiya and Banke districts from December 15. The team then conducted the tiger census in Shuklaphanta and Laljhadi.
“The total cost for the tiger census is estimated around Rs 40 million and special attention is accorded for the security of the technicians,” Dr Kandel said. The technicians involved in the tiger counting are insured for Rs 1 million and the Nepal Army personnel deployed for the security of the national park would also accompany the enumerators for their security.
It is said that a total of 120 technicians and assistants in addition to some elephants would be mobilized in Chitwan National Park for this purpose. The technicians and assistants deployed for the tiger counting would be stationed in 16 different camps there.
The camera trapping method will be used in the census wherein 360 cameras’ traps are laid along the tiger's path to capture their images as they move. The task is expected to be completed in almost two months.
The final results are expected to arrive within four months after the analysis of the images captured. This is the fourth time that Nepal is conducting tiger counting. Prior to this, the censuses were held in 2008, 2013 and 2018.
CHITWAN, Dec 3: Narayan Adhikari A two-day training for enumerators and technical staff has begun here today at the Chitwan National Park, in preparation for the National Tiger Survey. The tiger census is to be conducted in Chitwan, Bardiya, Parsa, Shuklaphanta and Banke national parks from December 5. Some 100 persons would be trained for this purpose.
The training is coordinated by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. Experts from ZSL, World Wildlife Fund, National Trust for Nature Conservation and the Department of Forests will impart the training. Chief Conservation Officer at CNP Hari Bhadra Acharya said the tiger count would be conducted simultaneously in Chitwan and Parsa.
Three hundred sixty pairs of cameras would be installed in the two national parks for the census. Sixteen camps have been set up in the single block comprising the two national parks. The cameras will be placed at a height of half metre. The automatic trapping cameras would be installed in trees at several spots and also on poles. Tiger count is done with the 'capture recaptured method'. A pair of cameras is installed in two grids or four square kilometres area. As Acharya shared, the cameras have to be kept for at least two weeks.
It is estimated that capturing tiger image by cameras will complete in about two months. The results of the tiger census will be available after four months after studying the images captured by camera. The national level tiger census was started here since 2008. It was conducted for the second time in 2013, for third time in 2018 and this year for the fourth time. Acharya said they would start counting the prey population after the results of the tiger survey are published.
The previous 2018 tiger census put the population of adult tigers at 235. The highest number (93) was counted in the CNP followed by 87 in Bardiya, 21 in Banke, 18 in Parsa and 16 in Shuklaphanta.
This figure is expected to rise over the course of time. The 2010 Global Conference participated by 13 countries (where tigers are found) held in St Petersburg, Russia, had pledged to double the population of tigers by 2022 and Nepal also vowed to increase its number from 121 to 250.
Tiger conservationists are hopeful that Nepal would live up to its promise to double the tigers’ population by the given time. Nepal conducts the tiger census every four years.
