Lagatar24 Desk
Patna, Dec 4: The state government would partner with the Wildlife Trust of India, a Nepalese organisation, and a UK-based zoo to create a model human-carnivore coexistence zone out of five villages in Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve.
According to them, the project’s goal is to put a stop to the conflict between humans and carnivores in the Valmiki-Chitwan-Parsa transboundary region.
According to P K Gupta, Bihar’s Chief Wildlife Warden, the WTI, National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC-Nepal), and Chester Zoo (UK) jointly applied for the initiative and requested a letter of support from the Department of the Environment, Forest, and Climate Change.
“The department has given its go-ahead for the initiative,” he told PTI.
“The Chester Zoo has been actively working on human-wildlife conflict worldwide for the last several years, including in Terai in Nepal, where human-tiger conflict is a matter of concern,” Gupta said.
According to him, one of the biggest risks to a many species around the world is conflict between people and nature.
The three-year project will get underway in 2023.
A man-eating tiger that had killed nine people and numerous domestic animals was shot to death in October of this year, which put the Valmiki Tiger Reserve in the news recently. Wildlife experts claim that tigers and other large mammals frequently use the forest corridors that connect India and Nepal.
According to government data, the number of tigers in the state increased from 32 to about 50 between 2014 and 2018.
