Kamal Sampang

Kathmandu:

The tigers are beautiful, large animals. They are also chief among the list of endangered animals in the world. The population of tigers is dwindling owing to habitat loss, fragmentation, food shortage, over-exploitation of forest resources and poaching. Skin, bone, tongue and bile of the animal are being illegally exported. These form ingredients of popular Chinese and Japanese traditional medicine. The tiger is culturally respected in the Kirat society in Nepal. There is an ancient custom in Kirat society to worship the animal. Yet that does not suffice as a measure to stop the rampant killing of this animal.

As many as 145 countries including Nepal are signatory to the international CITES treaty which prohibits international trade. Country like Nepal, India, China, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Russia fall in to the category of tiger range country. The estimated tiger population is 1,00,000 in the world.

Nepal has only 200 tigers, now the government of Nepal has come up with a tiger conservation action plan focusing on ecosystem management with emphasis on building partnership with local communities. The Forest Act 1993 allows the community to manage the buffer zone around the protected area and sustainable use of forest resources. There are provision such as 30 to 50 per cent of income generated goes to community development. Different line agencies are accelerating the government policy and are engaging communities in wildlife conservation and ecotourism activities. More than US $5,00,000 per annum income is generated from visitors and around 60,000 tourists visit annually. Indigenous communities are contributing to forest ecosystem conservation that is directly or indirectly related with wildlife conservation but the national wildlife conservation policy is yet to emphasise their input.