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Tigers Disappear From Himalayan Refuge

Illegal wildlife trade decimates tigers in Nepal’s wildlife reserve










High-resolution images are available to accompany press stories based on this release and mentioning World Wildlife Fund.

Note to editors:

  • Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in Nepal is 117 sq miles, less than twice the size of the District of Columbia, and is home to tigers, rhinos and the world’s largest flock of Bengal florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis) and swamp deer (Cervus duvauceli). It connects with two tiger reserves in India, Pilbhit and Dudhwa.
  • Camera traps are innovative and reliable monitoring tools, which are cameras with infrared sensors that take a picture when they sense movement in the forest. The Suklaphanta camera traps used two cameras positioned to capture tiger images from both sides of the tiger because its stripes are not symmetrical. Each date, time and location of a photographic capture along with a GPS coordinate is recorded in a log book.
  • Tiger populations have declined by 95 percent over the past 100 years, and three sub-species have become extinct with a fourth not seen in the wild for over 25 years. There are an estimated 2,000 Bengal tigers remaining in the wild. Bengal tigers mostly inhabit the dry and wet deciduous forests of central and south India, the Terai-Duar grassland and sal forests of the Himalayan foothills of India and Nepal, and the temperate forests of Bhutan. They are also found in Bangladesh, Myanmar and China. The mangroves of the Sunderban (shared between Bangladesh and India) are the only mangrove forests where tigers are found.