Nepal's Wild Tiger Population Nearly Triples in Conservation Milestone

Nepal's latest national tiger survey has counted 429 wild tigers within its borders, according to results released by the country's government in partnership with WWF and other conservation groups. That figure represents a near-tripling of the 121 tigers recorded in a 2010 baseline survey, and puts Nepal well ahead of the global commitment made by tiger range countries that year to double wild tiger numbers by 2022, a target known as Tx2.

The recovery has been driven by a combination of strict anti-poaching enforcement, community-based forest management involving local buffer-zone residents, habitat restoration connecting protected areas such as Chitwan, Bardia, Banke and Shuklaphanta national parks, and cross-border coordination with India on shared landscapes like the Terai Arc. Conservationists credit Nepal's model of engaging local communities as forest stewards, rather than excluding them from protected areas, as a key reason poaching and habitat loss have been curbed even as tiger numbers rose.

The milestone comes with new challenges: more tigers packed into limited habitat has increased human-wildlife conflict incidents in villages bordering the parks, and conservation groups say continued investment in habitat corridors, community compensation programs and anti-poaching patrols will be needed to sustain the gains. Nepal's success is now frequently cited by conservationists as a model for other tiger range countries such as India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Russia and several Southeast Asian nations still struggling to reverse steep historical declines in wild tiger populations.