This year, the counting is to be conducted in three different blocks, and the counting in the western block of the park began on Saturday. According to joint coordinator of the tiger census program Jhamak Bahadur Kaki, staffers were trained with necessary skills to conduct the counting. [break]
Chure area is also going to be covered in this year´s counting and the number of striped tigers will emerge bigger than before as Chure has dense forests, which are favorable habitats for the big cats. National Nature Conservation Trust, World Wildlife Fund and Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation have funded the census. The park management says fresh data on tigers will help formulate new policies on tiger conservation.
Eleven teams including conservationists have been involved in the census and they will be supplemented by 97 cameras to record the movement of the tigers and up to 10 elephants for mobility. The teams will fix cameras on the possible routes of tigers for 15-20 days in each block, said Ranger Madhav Khadka. A survey was carried out over the past two months to select the places for observation of tiger movement.
After the counting in Chitwan National Park, tiger counting will take place in Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve and Basanta and Khata corridor areas.
Last year´s counting had found 121 adult tigers in Nepal with 91 in Chitwan National Park alone.
Meanwhile, bird counting in water and wetland areas of the Chitwan National Park, which was started two weeks ago, will complete by Monday, according to Word Education Society Chitwan.
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