Tiger attacks in Nepal have prime minister considering 'giving them away'

In 2010, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the World Bank President convened a small meeting of Asian leaders in St. Petersburg, which was also attended by actor Leonardo DiCaprio and supermodel Naomi Campbell. This special gathering had only one agenda: to save the endangered tiger and double the number of wild tigers by 2022.

Nepal took the lead in achieving this goal, doubling its tiger population as scheduled, and subsequently increasing it to 355. However, last December, Nepal's Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli disputed the widely praised tiger population rebound, stating that "150 tigers are enough for us," and hinted that his government might seek to export some of the apex predators to other countries.

"Why not give tigers to friendly countries?" he said. "The number of tigers should match the available forest area. It is impractical and unwise to endanger human lives to protect tigers." Government data shows that more than 60 people in Nepal died from tiger attacks between 2019 and 2025, peaking in 2022 with 21 deaths, exceeding any year in the past decade.

However, advocates and researchers argue that the increase in deaths is not inevitable if tiger populations continue to recover. Ghana Shyam Gurung of WWF Nepal said that Mr. Oli's reaction was knee-jerk and that information campaigns were needed to promote safer human-tiger interactions. "Tigers are not going to change their ways. We need to change our human ways," Dr. Gurung said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "The World" program.

"People living around the parks need to enter the parks for their livelihoods, so we need to improve their livelihoods so they don't have to enter the parks, thereby minimizing the loss of human lives." Researchers have identified human activities, including grass cutting, grazing, and firewood collection, as major drivers of wildlife encounters in the Bardia-Banke Complex, one of Nepal's largest tiger reserves. They say that if human-tiger interactions can be better managed, there will be opportunities for economic benefits, such as employment in the wildlife tourism industry.

India, home to the majority of the world's tigers, also achieved its 2010 goal of restoring tiger numbers, counting 3,167 wild tigers in 2022. But in the same year, India also crossed another grim milestone, recording more than 100 human deaths from tiger attacks for the first time, according to data from the National Tiger Conservation Authority of India. However, these deaths have not triggered the same level of backlash from Indian political leaders as in Nepal, and support for protecting the national treasure remains high, even though new research suggests that as much as 45% of India's tiger habitat is shared with humans.

The study, led by Yadwendradev Jhala, a researcher at the Indian National Academy of Sciences, found that public attitudes towards animals and understanding of the economic benefits of animals are crucial for harmonious coexistence between tigers and humans. Mr. Jhala said that the success of India's tiger population recovery provides lessons for other countries with growing large cat populations. "The common perception is that population density will prevent the increase in tiger numbers or large carnivore numbers," he told the Associated Press. "Our research shows that it is not population density that matters, but people's attitudes, which is more important than population density. This is reflected in the fact that tigers share space with over 60 million people in our country."

There is evidence that community understanding of how to coexist may be improving, with the number of deaths from attacks decreasing in both India and Nepal since peaking in 2022.