The country, which has seen no tigers killed for almost three years, together with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conservation group opened a five-day anti-poaching summit here on Monday (February 2nd), AFP reported.
“Nepal and India are our tiger heavyweights leading the region. India excels at recovering tiger numbers and Nepal at zero poaching,” said Mike Baltzer of the WWF Tigers Alive Initiative.
India in January reported a 30% jump in tiger numbers since 2010, while Nepal saw numbers rise by almost two thirds between 2009 and 2013. Its last reported poaching incident was in March 2012.
Tikaram Adhikari, director general of Nepal’s department of national parks and wildlife conservation, said an initiative to convince villagers to inform on poachers and pay them half of tourism revenues had reaped huge dividends.
“Now they know the benefits of protecting tigers and they want to help. The survival of the animal is a matter of prestige for them,” he said.
Experts from countries with tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam, are attending the summit.
