Nepal has been celebrated globally for tripling its tiger population in a decade - but Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli thinks the country may have been too successful.
"In such a small country, we have more than 350 tigers… We can't have so many tigers and let them eat up humans," he said last month at an event organized to review the country's COP29 outcomes.
Attacks by tigers claimed nearly 40 lives and injured 15 people between 2019 and 2023, according to government data. But local communities say the figure is much higher.
"For us, 150 tigers are enough," Oli declared in December, suggesting that Nepal could send its prized big cats as gifts to other countries.
How many tigers are too many?
There is no one answer, experts say. It depends on the availability of prey in a given area. Ideally, each tiger should be near about 500 prey animals, such as deer, antelopes, or wild buffalo, tiger biologist Ullas Karanth says.
Experts argue that Oli's concern with capping tiger numbers is misplaced. Rather, Nepal's government should focus on "expanding protected areas that have reasonable natural densities of prey and tigers," Dr Karanth adds.
If wildlife is spilling out of protected areas in search of prey, that might explain why so many attacks have happened in places that border forests, where tigers have always encountered humans.
An example is the "buffer zones" that lie between national parks and human settlements. Wildlife sightings are common here, but locals also use the area for cattle grazing and collecting fodder and firewood.
Forest corridors - strips of land that connect different parks and bio-reserves allowing wildlife to roam between them - have emerged as yet another flashpoint. Roads sometimes run through these areas, and locals also use them for foraging, leaving them vulnerable to attacks.
The rise in human fatalities is a sign that Nepal's once-successful conservation model is cracking, zoologist Karan Shah says.
Sky Star News
Nepal's leader says it has too many tigers. Does it?
Wild tigers killed nearly 40 people in Nepal between 2019 and 2023. Solutions are hard to come by.
#WildlifeConservation #NepalTigers #EcosystemBalance
Nepal has been celebrated globally for tripling its tiger population in a decade - but Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli thinks the country may have been too successful.
"In such a small country, we have more than 350 tigers… We can't have so many tigers and let them eat up humans," he said last month at an event organized to review the country's COP29 outcomes.
Attacks by tigers claimed nearly 40 lives and injured 15 people between 2019 and 2023, according to government data. But local communities say the figure is much higher.
"For us, 150 tigers are enough," Oli declared in December, suggesting that Nepal could send its prized big cats as gifts to other countries.
How many tigers are too many?
There is no one answer, experts say. It depends on the availability of prey in a given area. Ideally, each tiger should be near about 500 prey animals, such as deer, antelopes, or wild buffalo, tiger biologist Ullas Karanth says.
Experts argue that Oli's concern with capping tiger numbers is misplaced. Rather, Nepal's government should focus on "expanding protected areas that have reasonable natural densities of prey and tigers," Dr Karanth adds.
If wildlife is spilling out of protected areas in search of prey, that might explain why so many attacks have happened in places that border forests, where tigers have always encountered humans.
An example is the "buffer zones" that lie between national parks and human settlements. Wildlife sightings are common here, but locals also use the area for cattle grazing and collecting fodder and firewood.
Forest corridors - strips of land that connect different parks and bio-reserves allowing wildlife to roam between them - have emerged as yet another flashpoint. Roads sometimes run through these areas, and locals also use them for foraging, leaving them vulnerable to attacks.
The rise in human fatalities is a sign that Nepal's once-successful conservation model is cracking, zoologist Karan Shah says.
9 months ago | [YT] | 0