Nepalgunj, December 27
Tiger census has begun at Banke National Park. Using camera trapping system, researchers will count the number of tigers and monitor species that tigers prey on.
Rabi Lal Pantha, chief district officer of Banke, inaugurated the census on Tuesday by turning on the switch of a camera installed at the park. The park is a property of Banke district, so it is the responsibility of the people of the district to conserve the park and animals living there.
Only by conserving tigers’ prey can tigers be conserved, he pointed, adding that the system will gather information about food available to tigers at the park.
It is a project of the National Nature Conservation Trust and Banke National Park. Dil Bahadur Purja Pun, chief conservation officer at the park, said they have installed 122 automatic trapping cameras by dividing the park into two square kilometre segments. The idea is to monitor and count the number of tigers at the park over 40 days, Purja informed.
Ambika Khatiwada of the Trust said they conducted a similar monitoring programme in Shuklafanta national park and Bardiya national park a month ago. He said: A team of 25-30 people, including park employees, locals involved in anti-poaching activities and trust staffers will conduct monitoring for 40 days.
Tiger census started at Banke national park, established in 2009, in 2013, Lal Bahadur Bhandari, assistant conservation officer of the park, informed. In 2013, according to Bhandari, three adult tigers were found at the park.
Four tigers were found in the park in 2014, six in 2015 and nine in April 2016. During the April count, tigers were found with cubs in two spots, indicating that the number of tigers is on the rise, Bhandari said. That’s why we have started a study on animals that the tiger depends on for survival, he said.
