According WWF Nepal, ” There are now an estimated 235 wild tigers in the country, nearly doubling the baseline of around 121 tigers in 2009. If these trends continue, Nepal could become the first country to double its national tiger population since the ambitious TX2 goal – to double the world’s wild tiger population by 2022 – was set at the St Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010.”
In Nepal the Tiger populations are under threat from prey depletion, tiger poaching and habitat degradation and fragmentation. These threats arise from a variety of factors linked to local rural uses from variety of factors linked to local rural uses as well as economic development projects. Essential challenge now lies in setting appropriate priorities in responding to these threats. In Nepal, fragmentation and loss of natural habitat and poaching are the major impediment to effective conservation
Tigers are facing a serious danger of becoming extinct in the wild. There were once nine subspecies of tigers: Bengal, Siberian, Indochinese, South Chinese, Sumatran, Malayan, Caspian, Javan and Bali. Out of the nine subspecies, the last three have already been extinct and the rest are endangered. Historic tiger range ran from Turkey, Tibetan plateau, Manchuria and the Sea of Okhotsk in South and Southeast Asia.
Nepal conducted its national tiger survey between November 2017 and April 2018 in the transboundary Terai Arc Landscape (TAL), a vast area of diverse ecosystems shared with India. Camera traps and occupancy surveys were used to estimate tiger occupancy and abundance, while line transect surveys were used to derive prey density. The last tiger survey in 2013 had estimated the tiger population at 198.
