Conservationists hope to double tiger population in 10 years

Oct 31, 2009, 6:12 GMT

   Kathmandu - An international conference in Nepal concluded with a commitment to double the tiger population in the wild over the next 10 years, media reports said Saturday.

   The wild tiger population has fallen from 100,000 to around 3,500 in just a century in 14 tiger-range countries that include Bhutan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Russia, China, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

   The conference called for a halt on infrastructure building near tiger habitats, and for better management of the tiger range.

   Strict protection of wild tigers and their core breeding areas, conservation and management of buffer zones and corridors that connect tiger breeding areas were also among the recommendations.

   The Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop also recommended celebrating 2010 as the Year of Tiger across the world to raise global awareness on the critical plight of the wild tiger and enlist broad and deep support for its conservation.

   Nepal said this week it would double the 900-square-kilometre Bardia National Park, to help establish viable links between the protected border areas of Nepal and India. The project is viewed as an attempt to expand the core tiger-breeding area in the region.

   Forest Minister Deepak Bohara told the workshop that 121 breeding adult tigers remained in the protected reserves of Nepal and the population was reported to be stable.

   The decline in tiger population has been attributed to loss of their habitat as well as rampant poaching for their body parts.