KATHMANDU: Despite the alarming rate of decrease in tiger population, the government has announced a highly ambitious plan to double the number of tigers in a decade.

According to a 2009 estimate, adult tigers number 121 in the nation. Deepak Bohora, Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation, plans to take that number beyond 240 in a decade. However, the critics say the ministry’s past performance in this regard does not justify the plan.

First nationwide survey of tigers was done in 2000, way after the damage had already been done. “We don’t have any official record of the tiger population before 2000. But the hunting records indicate that tigers numbered more than a thousand a few decades ago,” said Shiva Raj Bhatta, spokesperson, Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation.

“Records show that more than 100 tigers were hunted in a single camp during Rana regime and such camps were frequent at that time,” added Bhatta.

Wild cats are found in 14 Asian countries — Nepal, India, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and North Korea. “There were about a lakh tigers a century ago but now their number has dwindled to 3,500 tigers,” said Dr Mahendra Shrestha, Programme Director, Save The Tiger Fund.

Habitat destruction and poaching are two main reasons for the decline in their numbers.

“Ninety-three per cent wild habitat of tigers was destroyed in the last century. If efforts to conserve tiger population are not made, tigers will be extinct in two decades,” added Shrestha.It was estimated in 1998 that there were 5,000-7,000 tigers. It was revealed that the number decreased to 3,500 in 2008.

“The continuous decline clearly shows that there is something wrong in our efforts to conserve the tiger,” said Dr Siddhartha Bajracharya, conservationist.

“If tigers get extinct, it will distort the whole ecological cycle of food chain,” claimed Bajracharya.

Meanwhile, scientists, conservationists, activists, donors and government delegates will gather in Kathmandu for Global Tiger workshop organised by MoFSC with the support of CITES secretariat, Global Tiger Forum, Global Tiger Initiatives, World Bank, National Trust for Nature Conservation and WWF.

“The workshop will come with Kathmandu Declaration that will be forwarded to the ministerial meeting of the tiger range countries scheduled in January,”said Bhatta, spokesperson, DNPWC.

The four-day global workshop will kick off on October.