Securing the future of Nepal’s Tigers

The ‘Chitwan-Parsa tiger complex’ (made up of Chitwan National Park and Parsa Wildlife Reserve) contains nearly 2000 km2 of contiguous tiger habitat and is one of the highest priority landscapes for conservation in Nepal. It is home to around 135 breeding tigers. ZSL is working to monitor these animals to better understand how to protect them from threats, through community projects, conservation capacity building, and habitat and prey species management.

Key objectives

Chitwan itself represents a success story for wildlife conservation in Nepal. Significant resources have been invested there, both by the government of Nepal and by national and international conservation groups. Nepal’s citizens have a long history of living in harmony with their wildlife, and local communities around Chitwan in particular have benefitted from eco-tourism revenues. Tiger numbers there have held steady as a result of these efforts. ZSL will work closely with DNPWC and NTNC to set up a tiger monitoring programme and address current threats to the tiger population and assist Nepal in their pledge to double their tiger numbers by 2022.

Prior ZSL support has created a highly effective community based anti-poaching task force in the eastern part of Chitwan National Park, and now ZSL and NTNC would like to extend this excellent model to protect the vital buffer zones around Parsa and strengthen ongoing anti-poaching measures in and around Chitwan National Park.