Kathmandu, April 17:

Director of the Global Species Programme of the WWF International, Dr Sue Liiberman, today warned that the shrinkage of tiger habitat was a “real and the biggest” challenge for Nepal.

“Just like other countries where tigers are found, Nepal is also suffering from destruction of tiger habitats and people’s encroachment in the wildlife areas,” she told this daily. Liberman is currently in Kathmandu to attend the International Tiger Symposium that started here yesterday.

“Though Nepal’s efforts in the conservation of tigers are appreciable, it is yet to come up with an up-to-date statistics of tigers,” she said, adding that Nepal should produce better results in the field of tiger conservation.

According to government officials, there are 350 to 370 tigers in Nepal as per the 2000 census.

Nepal is one among a few countries where tigers are found. Out of eight species of tigers, only five species are living in 10 Asian countries.

Some Chinese businessmen are pressurising the governments to lift a ban on the trade of tiger and tiger parts. They are putting pressure on the international community to allow China to commercially breed tigers.

“Since China is the biggest market of tiger parts, the lift on the ban will affect conservation efforts. This is going to be the real and biggest threat for the tigers and the tiger conservationists,” Liiberman said.

She further said that the activities of the Global Tiger Forum (GTF) were not satisfactory.

“We have to say that the output of the GTF is not what we had expected. It could have done more with the resources available,” she said, adding that she was disappointed when some countries presented the status of their tiger population without clear statistics and vision for the future.

She added that the forum even does not have an up-to-date information about the tiger population and none of the range countries (the countries where tigers can be found) has produced a really appreciable result.