July 28, 2009

Wildlife officials glory in big cat population

The population of Royal Bengal Tigers in the country is satisfactory, the latest nationwide census on the big cat states.The census, made public on Monday, allays fears that population of the endangered species might have gone down drastically due to increased poaching.

The five-month census that started this November puts the number of breeding tigers at 123, up from 121 in 2000.  For the first time, the project—a joint undertaking of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), Department of Forests (DoF), Save the Tiger Fund, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) - covered major natural wildlife reserves and forest areas using digital camera trapping system to track the beasts.

According to the census, the Chitwan National Park (CNP) hosts 91 breeding adult tigers, the highest number of breeding  tigers in the study area. The census found 18, eight and four breeding tigers in the Bardiya National Park, Sukhlaphanta Wildlife Reserve and the Parsa Wildlife Reserve, respectively.

The project scanned potential habitats of the endangered species outside the protected areas in 14 districts stretching from  Rautahat in the East to Kanchanpur in the Far West. The census indicated that 10 out of 14 districts across the Tarai belt, where the study was conducted, may have tigers.

“The situation is not that grave,” said Shanta Raj Jynwali, a wildlife expert with the NTNC.  Experts say habitat management and anti-poaching measures can help maintain a satisfactory population of tigers inside the country.

The project found a satisfactory population of prey species, which is crucial for maintaining a satisfactory tiger population. “We hope to maintain good tiger population inside the country,” Jynwali said.

  
 Source: The Kathmandu Post

July 28, 2009

Tiger, snow leopard numbers dip  

The tiger census conducted this year has put the total number of adult tigers in Nepal at 121.Making public the report  of the census carried out from November 19, 2008, to March 7, 2009, in 14 districts on Monday, the government said the tiger population slightly declined from 2003 when their number was 123. Similarly, the number of snow leopards has been estimated to have declined in between 300 and 400, while previously their number was estimated to be in between 400 and 500.
 

July 28, 2009

Tiger hide seized 

A tiger skull was seized from a bus park in Gorkha district. Acting on a tip off, police confiscated the tiger organs kept hidden under the back seat of a bus (Ba 2 kha 3741) on Sunday night, according to the District Police office, Gorkha.

Police said the case has been handed over to the District Forest Office for necessary investigation. The bus driver and his assistant have been detained for interrogation. Police said that they were searching for those involved in the peddling of tiger skin, which is a crime according to the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act.

Source: www.nepalnews.com

July 26, 2009

Karnali River dolphins on verge of extinction 

This week locals of Kada and Pathraiya VDCs in Kailali spotted four freshwater dolphins in the Mohana River,a tributary of the Karnali. That’s quite a sighting: the viewers were able to take in at a single glance more than half the population of a critically endangered species. But the fact that one glance is enough to take in so much of a population also says much about the dolphins’ plight.

According to environmental experts and biologists, there are only around seven freshwater dolphins remaining in the Karnali and its tributaries. That figure represents a sharp drop from the 100 or so dolphins that were estimated to be alive during the 1980s. The Karnali river system wasn’t the only system where the dolphins thrived in the years past. The Mahakali River too had a few of them around. Today, the freshwater dolphins ply only along the Karnali river system. 

Why has the population of these dolphins plummeted to such levels that the creatures are today classified as a critically endangered species (critically endangered species are those that face an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future if strict measures for conserving them are not taken)? It’s mostly because the dolphins’ habitat has been destroyed, says Shiv Raj Bhatt, senior ecologist at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. “The construction of
major dams and barrages in the rivers, mostly by India, has fragmented their habitats and disturbed their movement,” he says.

India has, for example, constructed a dam in Girijapuri--15 kilometers south of the Nepali border, and that dam affects the  movement of the dolphins in the Karnali River. Likewise, the construction of a dam across the Sapta Koshi River has also adversely affected dolphins in the Koshi River.  

Furthermore, over-fishing by Nepalis, as well as by Indian fishermen in the border areas, has led to a sharp decline in the number of small fish, the staple diet for dolphins. Because of that many dolphins have over the years starved to death. Pollution has also been a major factor.

And, says Bhatt, although conservationists have time and again highlighted the challenges they face in trying to prevent the dolphins from going extinct, the government has not seriously addressed the issue of ensuring that that does not happen.

 “They (the dolphins) are treated as if they were normal animals by the National Parks though. We need a different conservation strategy to save the dolphins,” says Bhatt.

 Bhatt’s worries are not unwarranted, especially given the nonchalant attitude the governments have shown over the years. For example, the government had in its Nepal Biodiversity Strategy Implementation Plan in 2006 stated that it would formulate a separate project for dolphin conservation; but no programme has been implemented in the three years since that declaration was made.

Source: The Kathmandu Post

July 20, 2009

12 nations seek joint agenda on tiger conservation

Countries with habitats for tiger are coming together to formulate a common agenda for conservation of the big cat at a time when its numbers are dwindling globally. Nepal, India, China, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan, Russia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Mongolia and Malaysia are coming together in Kathmandu to discuss the three main agenda items of preserving tiger habitat, banning international trade in tiger parts and conserving other animals that tigers feed on, through identification of areas for tiger conservation, management officer of the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Department Shivaraj Bhatta disclosed.

National and international non-government organizations working on tiger conservation and donor agencies will also participate in a meeting of the Global Tiger Forum to be held in Kathmandu on October 26 and a subsequent four-day Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop.A ministerial meeting of these 12 countries scheduled for 2010 will endorse the agenda discussed during the meetings and workshop.

Monitoring is considered the best way for conserving the beast whose carcass is never found after it is killed. Deputy director of the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Department Megh Bahadur Pandey sees poaching as the main challenge for tiger conservation in Nepal. Conservationists in Nepal have been on high alert ever since the Sariska National Park in Rajasthan, India announced that it lost all its tigers two years ago.

The tiger is considered to be under threat even in Nepal after counting done in the Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve two years ago showed that the population of the animal went down by around 50 percent that year. Camera trapping had tracked 27 tigers in 2006 but it was just 15 in 2007.

The government of India has become serious about tiger conservation and its prime minister chairs the Tiger Conservation Project. The Indian union budget this year raised the budget allocated for the project to Indian Rs 1.84 billion from the previous year´s 720 million, but Nepali budget has yet to address the issue.
  
 
Source: Republica