National 3 (Spotlight Weekly)

End of Terror

With the culling of two man-eaters, three-months-long terror of tiger comes to an end

By KESHAB POUDEL

People living near the Royal Chitwan National Park finally heaved a sigh of relief when a high-level team of hunters killed two tigers - which had terrorized the entire population for more than three months.

It took more than three months for the officials to locate and identify the tigers that had killed nearly a dozen people in the last three months. “We are happy to say that the man-eaters were culled by our special task force,” said a senior official of the Park.

After killing five people at a single spot, conservation officials here had dispatched a high level team of hunters to cull a man-eater tiger at the Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP), largest national park of Himalayan Kingdom lying 150 miles south-west of capital Kathmandu and reputed for successful conservation of endangered species including Royal Bengal Tiger and one-horned rhinoceros, among others.

Never in the last two decades local population had been terrorized by wild animals in such a manner at RCNP where 18 people have already fallen prey – including 10 killed by tigers - in the last two months.

According to the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), there are 340-350 Royal Bengal Tigers in Nepal in three wild life reserves. RCNP alone has about 150 tigers. Out of the total, 60 tigers in RCNP, 40 in Royal Bardia National Park (RBNP) and 23 in Royal Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve are in breeding stages.

Funded by the Smithsonian Institute and WWF, the Tiger Ecology – which was initiated in 1973 – was the first project conducting research on the behavior and ecology of Chitwan’s tigers. Smithsonian Institute still support a long term Tiger monitoring project in Chitwan.

Tigers need very large areas to live in their natural way. A tiger requires a territory between 30 to 40 square kilometers in area and it constantly is on the moves. When one tiger moves away from its territory, another takes its place. Few tigresses can be found prowling around the same ground close to each other.

According to wildlife experts, tigers become man-eater in two situations. The female tigers with newborn cubs attack human to protect its cubs while old tigers kill human as an easy prey. “The weaker tigers, which are chased out by stronger ones often from a particular territory, have the tendency to attack human,” said Laxmi Prasad Manandhar, conservation officer at the Department.

Park officials panicked when a man-eater tiger killed five people aged between 23 to 40 who had gone on a picnic at Anarkhola, inside RCNP on 19 March. The tiger killed Madhav Adhikary (35), Brijaman Tamang (23), Gyan Bahadur Tamang (22), Santa Bahadur Praja (22) and Tholali Pariyar (40) on the spot.

The story did not end there. Poonam Gurung, 4, was snatched away by tiger on 23 March. The local people next day recovered the badly mutilated body of the child at Kumroj community forestry in Chitwan.

In February, three women, who had gone to a nearby community forestry in buffer zone to collect fuel-wood and fodder, were killed by tiger.

The tigers prey primarily on deer, wild boar and can also kill animals much larger than themselves like wild buffaloes. They sometimes prey on domestic cattle and human as well. Experts say that when wild animals kill cattle or human, the local community gets enraged and it ignites conflict between man and animals, which could also hamper the conservation efforts.

Killing domestic animals is much easier for them and sometimes they become habituated. According to a study, the tigers hunt from late afternoon throughout the night until morning. They need to have an average of 50-60 kg flesh per week for food. They may feed on a kill for several days or gorge themselves at a single sitting going without food for several days.Although officials have already tranquilized one suspected young female tiger with three cubs and put red collar on her to monitor movement, local population living in the vicinity of RCNP are yet to find respite as another suspected man-eater is also believed to be roaming around.

“We have taken a number of steps before culling the tigers which were roaming in the area of Dibyanagar and Madi community forestry,” said assistant warden of RCNP. “Although our previous attempts failed to capture the beast alive, this time we killed them.”

Rhinos, tigers and sloth beer also attack human when these animals flee from protected areas to the adjoining residential areas or when they encounter local populations who come to collect fodders and fuel wood inside the park. Other wild animals do not eat human flesh but tigers kill as well as eat human flesh.

“Our experience is that once a tiger gets the taste of human flesh, it will not eat other animals. So man-eater tigers are very dangerous and it needs culling,” said Manandhar.

Along with the number of wild-animals, human population in and around the national parks and wildlife reserves have increased considerably over the last few decades. As the contact between local people and wildlife increases, the number of human casualty also rises.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been implementing a project to prevent the contact between man and animal developing a buffer zone between the human settlement and national parks. “One of the aims of our Terai Arc Land Scope Project is to reduce interactions between man and wild animals by promoting buffer between human habitat and wildlife habitat areas,” said, project coordinator of the project that is active in 14 districts of southern Terai region of the country, in which the RCNP and RBNP are also located.

The growing human populations heavily rely on wildlife habitats for fuel wood and fodders where hundreds of protected animals like tigers and rhinos live in shrinking lands. The wild animals like rhinos and elephants find nearby fields of corn, wheat and rice as good source for their food. The aged and chased-out tigers also find domestic cattle and human as easy preys.

“We need frequent study of behaviors and age groups of tigers inside the national park. If tigers start to eat human flesh, they need to be culled,” said an expert. “Culling tiger is a very complicated work. In absence of proper observation and behavioral study, there are possibilities of committing mistakes whereby innocent tigers might be killed while man-eaters continue to roam the jungles.”

The problem appears when a male tiger grows into a sub-adult stage when it moves out of its natal area leaving it to the dominant male. Weaker tigers are often chased away by stronger and younger ones. In the course of establishing the territory, many tigers are wounded. Such wounded and chased away tiger are always in search of weaker prey to feed on.

“We can locate the territory of a particular tiger through their mark since tigers mark their territory by spraying scent, making scrape marks on trees or urinating, ”said Manandhar.

ADB’S Focus On Inclusive Development

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government agreed to focus ADB’s future assistance on agriculture and rural development, education, energy, finance, social infrastructure, and the transport and communications sectors, through a proposed assistance program of about US$100 million per year in 2005-2007, states a press release by ADB.

The bank’s lending program will be fully consistent with the Government’s poverty reduction strategy as set out in its Tenth Plan and will address the needs of conflict-affected areas and disadvantaged groups.

The agreement to this effect was signed on April 8 at the conclusion of ADB's Country Strategy and Program (CSP) Kick-Off and Country Programming Mission.

Sultan Hafeez Rahman, Country Director of ADB's Nepal Resident Mission (NRM), said ADB will focus on inclusive development in Nepal over the next five years. "ADB aims to make the development process more inclusive by focusing on spreading development in all regions; mainstreaming gender, ethnic, and caste issues into various ADB-assisted projects; and education and skills training," he said, adding, "ADB will also focus its investments on community-led initiatives."

“The Asian Development Bank is dedicated to reducing poverty in the Asia and Pacific region through pro-poor sustainable economic growth, social development, and good governance. Established in 1966, it is owned by 63 members – 45 from the region. In 2003, it approved loans and technical assistance worth US$6.1 billion and US$177 million, respectively,” the release further states.