Himalayan Tiger Foundation, a Dutch NGO works on conserving tiger population and biodiversity conservation in Nepal. In a talk with Sanjeev Sharma of The Corporate, the President of the Himalayan Tiger Foundation, Cas de Stoppelaar gave insights into the organization’s plan for Nepal. He was accompanied by Prof Dr Jacques J.M. Van Alphen of the University of Amsterdam and Laura D. Bertola, PhD researcher at Universiteit Leiden. Excerpts: 

 

What is Himalayan Tiger Foundation doing in Nepal?

Nepal is in a position to get more support in a scientific way to do things in conservation biology. Nepal is very special and extremely rich not only in terms of having everything from low lands to high mountains, but also, because you are the cross roads of different bio-geographic regions. So, the species from different regions meet here. Our scope is broader than only tigers; we want to study in the Terai region, mainly in the Bardiya National Park, biodiversity and climate change. We had been there just two days back and we are writing our proposal which will be financed probably in the first phase by private donors in the Netherlands. We just had a talk with the Science department of Kathmandu University for setting up a master’sdegreecourse on conservation biology and wildlife genetics in cooperation with Universities in Amsterdam and Leiden. We aim to have young people from this country being knowledgeable and specialists in this area, so that they can do their own job in their own country.

 

How is your organisation working to achieve these goals?

Well, the thing lacking in this country is the scientific base for wildlife conservation management. There are few pockets of qualities like CNDN and other things. But, what is missing in most of the NGOs is scientific dimension. They just get the funds and they do something as a sort of try. We want to strengthen the scientific foundation of Wildlife Management in Nepal through a couple of things. Firstly, we want to be associated with Kathmandu University, and look at masters in science course in the field. We have enthusiastic people there, capable of doing PhD, which is the second thing and we are looking for funding. Thirdly, we are planning to set up a resource centre next to Bardiya National Park with all sort of disciplines from butterflies to tigers, salamanders to bats etc. We will build up a good database and update it regularly in a way that you can follow it year after year. You will see the changes coming up and you can see the sort of measures to keep the habitat of tigers and other animals healthy.For many reasons, it is important, one of them being its scientific importance and secondly, it can be economically sound as it can attract tourists by showcasing the birds. 

 

Which aspect of tiger conservation are you working on as there are serious threats to tiger conservation, such as loss of habitat and poaching?

One of the things we want to include is conservation genetics. Using genetic techniques we can get genetic data which will be quite helpful in conservation strategy. This is particularly interesting for large species that need a lot of space in a fragmented habitat because these speciesneed connectivity.If the population of these species becomes small in number, they also become vulnerable for extinction. There are also all kind of genetic factors that play a role to that. One of those is inbreeding, which can be a very serious risk for populations in nature. So, if you have an insight into the connectivity, structure and diversity within these populations, this can be really helpful to come up with a strategy about how to conserve this diversity in the best way possible.

 

Nepal is said to havemade remarkable progress in tiger conservation with the number of the big wild cats increasing to 198. What are the major contributing factors to this?

There are two things to be said on this. Firstly, no body exactly knows what the present number is because the counting methods are not always 100% correct and nobody knows what it was 5 years ago. So, there is a lot of variation in the numbers. If you say there is an increase, there is definitely an increase. But, no one can exactly point out the exact number of increment. There are errors in the various techniques used in the counting and thus, we cannot exactly point out the number of tigers. So, we need to put a margin on that. In Bardiya, the counting of tigers is done by capturing them on the cameras. This way the number of tigers in Bardiya is said to be 50.  But, every tiger may not face the camera. So, we don’t know if it is 50 or more than 50. So, we can use genetic techniques and methods to count tigers. This has been adopted in Chitwan.                      

 

Despite various initiatives being taken on tiger conservation the world has lost 97% of wild tigers this century. What can be done effectively to stop tigers from extinction by 2022 as feared by scientists?

First of all, it is necessary that we keep the environment healthy and bring an end to poaching. Similarly, it is important to have knowledge regarding inbreeding. You must translocate the tigers for getting new genes involved. The system must be placed in a healthy way. It means that not only the tigers but even their prey have to be kept healthy. While balancing the system, we must also bring an end to poaching to keep everything in order.A step that must be taken is that corridors must be built in Bardiya and Chitwan for the tigers to move freely and thus, it will be helpful in breeding. Similarly, we should also be able to come up with transborder mechanism so that tigers can move freely in the natural environment which will ultimately contribute in increasing the population of tigers. There should be a contract between India and Nepal for free movement of tigers between the two countries so that tiger’s population can be increased.

 

Nepal lacks effective wildlife conservation policies. In this, what must Nepal do to ensure new and effective wildlife policies?

The government should enforce new and strict laws regarding tiger conservation. People who live in buffer zones must be provided with premiums to stop them from cutting down the forest. It is important to instill a sense of responsibility in the people. People who trade tiger parts should be punished.