India and Nepal both are going to conduct Joint tiger census in their respective forests, National parks and in tiger reserve areas by using a Globally recognised method. The joint tiger census is to be performed to count the tigers properly so as to avoid repetitive counting of tigers in the adjacent areas and parks of both countries.
Under the programme, high quality cameras will be installed in various locations in tiger habitats as well as in buffer zones to capture the movement of tigers. The counting will be started from second week of November as per the officials.
This is the first time that both India and Nepal are conducting such census using globally recognized method.
Why India-Nepal joint Tiger Census was required?
There are many parks in India and Nepal that are adjacent to each other and having the presence of tigers. These are:
Chitwan National Park in Chitwan and Parsa Wildlife Reserve of Nepal adjacent to adjacent to the Balmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar. India’s Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary and Bardiya National Park of Nepal are also adjacent to each other. Nepal’s Shuklaphant National Park and Dudhwa Tiger Reserve are adjacent to each other.
Due to above conditions, both countries were facing problems in counting the Tigers in these adjacent areas and the counting outcomes were inaccurate. But with latest globally used method and joint counting, the accurate counting will be possible.
Tiger is an endangered animal not only in India but in world also. As per the statistics of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), there has been 93% reduction in number of tigers in recent times. The reasons behind are human and wildlife conflict, climate change and poaching and illegal wildlife trade.
