KATHMANDU: Nepal and India inked a key pact to curb illegal trade in animal parts and other conservation initiatives to boost wildlife in the two neighbouring states.
Nepal signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India at ministry of forest and soil conservation today to combat illegal trade in animal parts.
"After the MoU with China in June, we were working hard to enter into a similar agreement with India and the time has finally come for that," forest minister Deepak Bohara was quoted as saying by the myrepublica online, the news website of Republica daily.
The MoU was signed by Satya Prakash Yadav, Deputy Inspector General of National Tiger Conservation Authority, Ministry of environment and forests of India, and Nepal’s director general of national parks and wildlife conservation, Gopal Prasad Upadhyay, the report said.
Nepal has stepped up steps to combat wildlife conservation and illegal trade in animal parts, which are treasured for commercial and medicinal purpose in China.
There are 13 tiger range countries in the world including Nepal, India, China and Myanmar. The tiger range countries have been working together to conserve the endangered wild animal tiger, to double the number or around 7,000 by next Year for Tiger 2022.
Bohara said Nepal is committed to double the tiger population to 250 by the year 2022. The government is committed to control poaching, increase tiger habitat and prey animals with a view to double the tiger population in the next 12 years, he said.
In a bid to intensify the conservation efforts, Nepal government has recently announced a new Banke National Park near Bardia National Park in the western Nepal, the minister said.
As a result of various steps, the number of adult tiger has reached 155 in Nepal, an increase of 28% over last year's population, according to Bivash Pandav, an Indian national, who is working under World Wildlife Fund Nepal office in Kathmandu.
Last year only 91 tigers were found when the census was carried out only in the lowland of the tiger reserve.
WWF Nepal has provided the government more than $50,000 to carry out the tiger census. It means Nepal is home to nearly 5% of tiger in the wild worldwide which is estimated to be 3,200.
