Tiger population in Nepal increases to 235: Census report

Nepal's Tiger population has gone up to 235 from 198 in 2013 as the country plans to increase the number of wild cats to 250 by 2022, according to a latest tiger census report unveiled here on Sunday.

The Chitwan National Park has the highest number of adult tigers at 93 followed by 87 in Bardiya National Park, said the new census report.

The number of tigers in the Bankey National Park has also reached 21 followed by 18 in Parsa National Park and 16 in Shuklaphanta National Park.

Nepal is likely to attain the goal of doubling tiger population by 2022 to 250 assuming 2009 as the base year, when 125 tigers roared in various Nepal forest.

"We need to work hard and intensify our conservation efforts of we are to achieve the target of 250 tiger population by 2022, remarked Ghana Shyam Gurung, country representative of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Nepal.

While most of the national parks have witnessed a surge in tiger population, number in Chitwan National Park has gone down from 120 in 2013 to 93 in 2018, the Himalayan Times quoted the report as saying.

However, officials at Chitwan National Park said that although technical figures show a decline, population of the big cat has not dropped, the report said.

"Frequent sightings of tigers around human settlements and inside park premises and decline in smuggling point to the fact that Chitwan National Park has a dense population of the wild predator," Chief Conservation Officer Bed Kumar Dhakal was quoted as saying by the paper.

In 2010, during the international Tiger Summit held in St Petersburg, thirteen tiger range countries including Nepal and India committed to the most ambitious and visionary species conservation goal ever set: TX2 - to double wild tiger numbers by 2022.