Nepal's leader says it has too many tigers. Does it?

Nepal has been lauded globally for successfully tripling its tiger population within a decade. However, Nepal's Prime Minister, KP Sharma Oli, believes the country may have been “too successful” in this endeavor. He stated that having over 350 tigers in such a small country and allowing them to attack humans is not viable.

According to government data, nearly 40 people have been killed and 15 injured in tiger attacks between 2019 and 2023. But local communities say the actual casualty figures are much higher. Oli declared in December that “150 tigers are enough for us,” even suggesting Nepal could gift these precious big cats to other countries.

Experts point out that there is no universal answer to the question of “how many tigers are too many.” It depends on the amount of prey within a specific area. Ideally, there should be around 500 prey animals, such as deer, antelope, or wild buffalo, for every tiger. Experts believe that Oli's focus on limiting the tiger population is misguided, and the Nepalese government should instead focus on "expanding protected areas with reasonable natural prey and tiger density."

If wildlife spills out of protected areas in search of prey, this could explain why so many attacks are occurring on the edges of forests. These areas are where tigers and humans have always come into contact. For example, “buffer zones” between national parks and human settlements often see wildlife incursions, where locals also graze livestock and collect fodder and firewood. Forest corridors connecting different parks and bio-reserves are also flashpoints, with roads sometimes running through these areas and locals foraging there, making them vulnerable to attack.

Zoologist Karan Shah says the rise in human fatalities suggests that Nepal's once-successful conservation model is showing cracks. He believes Nepal’s focus seems to be on winning international attention, while ignoring the impact on communities surrounding national parks and reserves. He adds that conservation is not just an “ecological or scientific issue,” but a social one. Loss of human life must be prevented to ensure local communities continue to participate in conservation, rather than oppose it. There is also a growing sense of anger among locals over tigers preying on their livestock.

Thakur Bhandari, president of the Federation of Community Forest Users Nepal, told the BBC: “Most of our population still lives in rural areas and depends on the forest resources they help protect, but they are now increasingly being killed and injured by tigers. As forest conservationists, we cannot be against wildlife, but that does not mean we should ignore its impact on humans and our society.”

A century ago, there were about 100,000 tigers in Asia, but deforestation and rampant poaching pushed them to the brink of extinction. Today, only around 5,600 wild tigers remain in 13 countries, including Nepal, China, India, Thailand, Indonesia, and Russia. All of these countries pledged to double their tiger populations by 2022, and Nepal was the first to exceed its target, thanks in part to a zero-poaching initiative and the doubling of the country's forest cover between 1992 and 2016. Forest corridors connecting 16 protected areas in southern Nepal with areas across the border in northern India have also helped.

The increase in tiger attacks has tarnished this achievement. Oli believes Nepal’s tiger population growth has come at the cost of human lives. However, viable solutions are not easy to find. The Department of Parks and Wildlife acknowledges the challenges of managing tigers in Nepal, where tigers that kill humans are tracked and taken into captivity. The department said in a 2023 conservation report that “zoos and rescue centers are already overwhelmed, housing a large number of problem tigers. A comprehensive protocol is urgently needed to deal with the rescue, handling and rehabilitation of problem animals.”

Oli has proposed sending Nepal’s tigers abroad. “People keep birds like falcons and peacocks as pets, why not tigers?” he suggested. “That would also raise their status.” Others have different ideas. Dr. Karan Shah believes that tigers that have taken human lives multiple times should be “killed immediately.” Some argue that humans have exacerbated the problem by encroaching on tiger’s natural habitats, using land for farming or infrastructure, and reducing the big cats’ prey base.

Meanwhile, a wildlife management expert interviewed by the BBC claimed that Oli wants to reduce the tiger population in order to clear more land for infrastructure. “It’s not about people’s safety,” he said. For now, the situation is at an impasse. It is unclear whether Oli’s “tiger diplomacy” suggestion will gain support, or whether Nepal’s tiger attack crisis is due to over-encroaching humans or the tigers themselves. What is clear is that peaceful co-existence between humans and tigers is proving elusive in Nepal, and the country’s conservation success has brought many thorny problems that need to be addressed.