KATHMANDU — After delays, Nepal is set to conduct its tiger survey and rhino count starting between December and March next year. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), in collaboration with partner organizations, aims to conduct the count in five tiger-bearing and four rhino-bearing national parks of Nepal, including Parsa, Banke, Bardiya, Chitwan, and Shuklaphanta. “Given the numerous delays for the census this year, we are planning to begin the tiger survey in December and rhino count in March,” said Haribhadra Acharya, information officer and senior ecologist at DNPWC. Despite a budget crunch caused by the USAID funding pullout this year and recent political unrest, Acharya said the department and partner organizations are in the planning phase and have formed advisory, technical and field task committees for effective and impact-driven surveys. While the tiger count is estimated to cost around 15 million rupees ($105,000), the rhino census is expected to cost 20 million rupees ($140,000). Although the censuses faced delays due to budget constraints, Acharya said the government plans to conduct the population counts through financial support received from different agencies and organizations, including the WWF Nepal, Zoological Society of Nepal and National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC). Rhinos in Chitwan National Park. Image by John Nabelek/OSU via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). “We also plan to update the Tiger and Prey Base Monitoring Protocol 2017, which ensures two weeks of camera trapping duration for survey and sampling purposes. But the update would extend the duration…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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