Nepal may address the problems caused by its growing tiger population by gifting some of the animals to other countries.
The population of tigers in Nepal has almost tripled to about 355 since 2009. In an address in December in Kathmandu, prime minister KP Sharma said: “In such a small country like ours we can’t have so many tigers and let them eat up humans.”
Mr Oli said a population of 150 tigers was sufficient for Nepal, and suggested presenting the remainder to other countries and to rich people overseas. “People love to keep birds like falcons and peacocks as pets, so why not tigers?” he said.
The World Wildlife Fund’s most recent National Tiger and Prey Survey in 2022 revealed that over the previous 12 years Nepal’s Bengal tiger population grew from 121 in 2009 to 355. It said that these enhanced numbers had followed the TigerX2 initiative launched at the Tiger Summit in St Petersburg, Russia, in 2010 to double the dwindling tiger population in 12 Asian countries and Russia to about 6,000 by 2022.
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The scheme involved cracking down on poaching and illegal trafficking in tiger parts, protecting key tiger habitats and corridors, reducing human-wildlife conflict and augmenting prey density.
The initiative also focused on increased co-operation between countries in south and southeast Asia such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Myanmar and Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam by creating “corridors” for tigers to roam freely between them.
Consequently almost all 13 countries registered a rise in tiger numbers, but while the scheme proved exceptionally successful for Nepal it came at a human price.
According to government data accessed recently by the BBC, Nepal’s tigers killed 40 people and injured 15 others between 2019 and 2023, primarily in the forested and low-grassland Terai region, bordering India, which provides an ideal habitat and high prey density for the animals. Locals, however, claimed these tiger-related fatalities to be significantly higher, according to Mr Oli.
Wildlife activists, however, have warned against translocating animals, especially tigers, from one country to another as changes in environment, especially climate, vegetation, and prey availability exacerbated their stress, rendering them vulnerable by disrupting their inherent behaviour.
Mr Oli’s proposal has a precedent for Nepal which since 1985 has gifted 26 endangered one-horned rhinos to Austria, Britain, China, Germany, Japan and the US. In 2024 it gifted two adult elephants to Qatar.
Between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries Nepal’s Rana’s or kings organised tiger hunts for British colonial government officials, then ruling adjoining India, to help secure favourable trade and diplomatic concessions. These shooting expeditions, in which numerous tigers were killed, included Britain’s Prince Albert Edward- later King Edward VII in 1867 – and King George V in 1911-12.
China has used pandas to further diplomatic ties with several countries. But rather than present them outright it has opted to lease them for large amounts of money, with the option of recalling the bears if bilateral ties sour.
In recent years the US, for instance, had returned most of its leased Chinese pandas following deteriorating diplomatic relations with Beijing.
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