Nepal's Animals Bengal Tigers

Could the Royal Bengal tigers of India's Jim Corbett National Park ever make it to enter Royal Bardiya National Park in Nepal's western Terai? A Jim Corbett Park NP's tiger has managed to cross over to Nepal. There are speculations that a herd of wild Asiatic elephants living in Bardiya Park for the last few years could have come all the way from Jim Corbett NP, which lies at least 600 kilometres away from Bardiya.

Nepal's western Terai will have more greenery with adequate forest corridors for the wildlife which know no political boundaries.

If things go as planned, the rare Asiatic elephants, rhinos and Bengal tigers living in six protected areas of Nepal and India will find it even more easier to cross over into each other's territory within the next few years. As such, like the people of these two neighbours, animals too do not need any passport or any document whatsoever to cross over to India or vice-versa. The only problem, say experts, is that there is not enough forest cover or corridor for these animals. The Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation of the government of Nepal and World Wide Fund for Nature Conservation (WWF) Nepal programme have now joined forces one more time to conserve and maintain a suitable habitat for the critically endangered wildlife species in the Western Terai.

The Terai-Duar Savannas and Grasslands of Nepal are one of the 'Global 200 Ecoregions' identified by WWF. The two sides this time are out to reforest the badly deforested patches from Banke-Bardiya to Kailali-Kanchanpur area in an attempt to create forest corridors linking the protected nature reserves, thereby facilitating the movements of the wildlife between the two nations. And the easy movement of such endangered species as tigers, elephants and rhinos are of utmost importance for the animals' survival and long-term conservation, say experts. "It's the best move," says Conservation Biologist Shanta Raj Gyawali of King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC). "The wild animals from different isolated parks need to mix in order to survive." He says continuous breeding of wild animals within a single population creates problems, and could even turn males infertile on the long run. "That's why corridors and inter-population relations are necessary," he adds.

Nepal's Bardiya National Park and Shukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve adjoins India's (Uttar Pradesh state's) Katraniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary and Dhudhwa National Park, and Kishanpur Wildlife Reserve, respectively. India's Sohelwa Wildlife Reserve and Jim Corbett National Park are also located within the 500-km radius of this area. Secretary at the Ministry Rabi Bahadur Bista and other high-ranking officials, WWF Nepal Program officials and the country's noted conservation biologists, last week extended their commitment to help carry out the five year project - Western Terai Chure Conservation Program. Bista formally opened the Program's office in this far-western Terai town Saturday.

WWF Nepal program is providing a financial assistance totalling US $ 1 million for the five-year-long project. "The government is committed (to conserving bio-diversity)," Bista said Saturday. "How committed we are is clear from the fact that we are not allowing to cut down a single tree in this region (mid- and far-west) for another five years." Officials say, some 1.5 million locals, the guardians of the forest resources, from the Bardiya Park's proposed extension area in Banke to Tanakpur near Shukla Phanta Wild Life Reserve, will be directly involved to conserve the forests and wetland of the Western Chure area. The region is home to dozens of critically endangered animals like Royal Bengal tigers, Asiatic elephants, One-horned rhinos, Swamp deer, Gangetic dolphins and hundreds of bird species.

The region boasts of three different Tiger Conservation Units (TCUs) - Banke-Bardiya, Kailali Dudhwa and Shukla Phanta-Kishanpur - which are famous for their "extremely
high density" of tiger population.

Report: 2002