Tiger survey completed in the first block

Under the National Tiger Survey 2078, the tiger survey has been completed in the first block of Chitwan National Park and Parsa National Park Complex. Under the first block, surveys were conducted in Triveni, Chormara, Nawalpur, Kasara, Sauraha, and Barandabhar areas by placing cameras since November 6.

According to Haribhadra Acharya, Chief Conservation Officer of Chitwan National Park, the work of removing the cameras has been completed in the first block. He said, “We have started to put cameras in the second block which will be completed today ”. The camera placed in the first block was removed after 21 days. The block was divided into 280 grids and 560 cameras were used. In the first block, 100 manpower was mobilized for the survey. Stating that camps have been set up at 13 places in the first block for the survey, he said that six to eight enumerators and technicians have been mobilized in each camp.

He said that the survey will be started under the second block from Sauraha to the eastern part of Purbachitwan, the eastern part of Madi, and Shikaribas through Thori. According to him, the block is being surveyed by dividing it into 290 grids. According to the park, about 580 automatic cameras will be used here. The park is conducting surveys this year using camera trapping methods. The park assumes a grid for every four square kilometers of area and connects a pair of cameras to a grid. According to Ganesh Prasad Tiwari, Assistant Conservation Officer and Information Officer of the park, the park has been set up near the Nepal Army battalion deployed for the protection of the park. He said that the work was done with utmost caution as there could be an accident while working. He informed that a tiger survey will be conducted in the second block for an average of 22 days.

As soon as the work in the second block is completed, the work in the third block will start. Under the third block, cameras will be installed in the rest of Parsa and in the forest area up to Rautahat. The same manpower will be mobilized in the third block as well. Some employees of Chitwan National Park will be reduced while those of Parsa National Park will be added. It will take about three months to complete the work on the complexes of Chitwan National Park and Parsa National Park. Information Officer Tiwari said that a camera trap, range finder, GPS, record firm, and other materials will be used in the tiger 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. Now it will only be a matter of moving to laptops and computers. Under the tiger survey work, work has been started in Bardiya and Banke blocks from November 12, while in Shuklaphanta and Laljhadi areas, the survey will be started using the same camera after the completion of the second block.

He informed that it is estimated that it will cost around Rs. 40 million to complete the survey. He said that the automatic camera would take a photo of the tiger while it was walking in the area where the camera was connected. After the photo study, the statistics are planned to be made public on the occasion of World Tiger Day on July 29. A national survey of tigers was launched in 2009. Looking at the results so far, it was estimated that there were 93 to 97 adult tigers in Nepal in 1995-96. According to the 2009 survey, there were 121, in 2013 there were 198 and in 2018 there were 235 adult tigers. 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 Shukla and 21 in Banke. This number is expected to increase.

Minister for Forest and Environment Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav inaugurated the tiger survey by operating an automatic camera. Tigers are found in Chitwan, Bardiya, Parsa, Shuklaphanta and Banke National Parks and surrounding National Forest areas of Nepal. Counting has started in those areas. In 2010, at the Tiger Conference of 13 Heads of State, where tigers were found in St. Petersburg, Russia, Nepal expressed its commitment to increase the number of tigers to 250 by 2022. At that time, there were 121 tigers in Nepal's parks. Nepal is committed to more than doubling the number. Stakeholders have estimated that the commitment has been fulfilled. In Nepal, tigers are counted every four to five years. Experts estimate that the number of tigers will increase with the survey as tigers are more active in parks and forests. Tourists and conservationists visiting the park have been saying that they have seen the tiger.