The Nepal Tiger Project Blog
I recently spent approximately 21 days in Nepal for the purpose of locating tigers in the wild.  Not in the well known Chitwan Park or some other preserve.  I ventured out within their known historic range in an area where tigers once occurred and have since been considered extinct. 

  

I was told of the presence of tigers in this area  in 2011 by the local Sherpa people, living in the Himalayan mountain areas of Nepal.  (Sherpa: "People of the East" are a race people living in the mountains, and are a minority group within Nepal.)  I became excited at the possibility of documenting the extension of the known range of wild tigers. I passed this information on to all the major tiger conservation organizations, but none seemed to care.  Only one man working  out of the Conservation Biology Program at the University of Minnesota, studying tigers in the Chitwan Preserve showed an interest.

Realizing that no one within the field of tiger conservation would "do something" with this information, I decided to return to Nepal in 2012 in order to "prove" tigers occurred in this central area of Nepal, far away from their currently known range.  This, with the hopes of creating a foundation to protect the tigers, but also to provide compensation to local villagers that may end up loosing livestock as a result of tigers being in the area.  (The original 2011 report was associated with the loss of a cafe.) The loss of one or two cattle could spell economic hardship for a Sherpa family, causing them to think about correcting the problem on their own.  Hunting down the guilty party or placing out bait laced with poison are generally the options taken up.  Although the government of Nepal has set up the compensation policy, for example, if human get killed by wildlife the victim family get Rs. 150,000 (approx. US $ 2000), for livestock loss is 50 - 100% cost of the livestock.   The people of the remote areas have no way of filing a claim without traveling two days into Kathmandu.  Once their, it is very unlikely that their claim would be followed up on.  (This, for one of many reasons. The two most common being, no one believes tigers continue to occur in areas far away from established reserves, and no one believes an uneducated villager could identify a tiger.)  Keeping this in mind, if I were able to confirm the presence of tigers in this area, the project would put into place an economic recovery plan for villagers suffering losses, combined with a formalized advocacy program that would assist villagers suffering losses with filing claims with the government.  Additionally, we would begin an educational program, showing villagers the advantages of having tigers in the area and introduce ways to reduce attacks on livestock.  (I also had many other ideas on how to improve the lives of these people, once the main goal of recording the presence of tigers was taken resolved.)

I solicited the assistance of a local "trekking" company, Adler Adventures Trekking (www.adlertreks.com), purchased five wildlife "camera traps" and set out on my way.

This Blog documents my efforts, the adventure, and my findings.

Nepal countryside

Sherpa girls in the Himalayan mountains

John Brooks and team