Nepal's Biodiversity in a nutshell  

Nepal, being a relatively small country located in South Asia but yet highly affluent in its biodiversity. Because of large attitude variation ranging from 60m to 8848m, Nepal is gifted with 118 types of ecosystem, 75 types of vegetation and 35 types of forest. Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) 2072B.S. reported- Nepal is home for 210 species of mammals, 878 species of birds, 137 species of reptiles, 53 species of amphibians and 653 species of butterfly.

Protected Areas:

Nearly more than 23 percent of total land are covered by a protected areas which comprise 12 national parks, 1 wildlife reserve, 6 conservation areas and 1 hunting reserve with the foremost aim to conserve the wildlife. Besides, it is the matter of Pride to Nepal that two National parks among them are listed as UNESCO Natural World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Each protected area are famed for specific wildlife species. For instance, Chitwan National park for Endangered One-Horned Rhino and Bardiya National Park for Endangered Royal Bengal tiger.

 Security equipment's and Anti-poaching Patrols

Security equipment's like CCTV cameras for 24-hours surveillance, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for aerial surveillance and GPS-enabled tracking devices for regular monitor in various protected areas are installed.

Nepal Army personnel, Nepal Police and Community Based Anti-Poaching Unit (CBAPU) are the ant poaching patrols deployed in most of the protected areas to safeguard the poaching risk.

Success

Together with huge conservation efforts and initiatives, Nepal's success in Wildlife Conservation in a glimpse:-

1. First country to celebrate 365 days of zero poaching of rhino in 2011.

-Was the earliest conservation milestone for the country and was the splendid example for the world in the wildlife conservation sector. Till 2018, Nepal was successful in celebrating zero poaching year of rhinos on five occasions.

2. Near to celebrate another new benchmark for becoming the first country to double its wild tiger population.

-The last tiger survey in 2018 estimates 235 royal Bengal tigers in Nepal, colossal rise from 2009, when there were only 121 tiger populations.

3. 645 endangered one -horned rhinos (Census of 2015)

4.Healthy habitation for many other cryptic wild species like Asian Elephant, Wild buffalo, Snow leopard, Red Panda, Pangolins, Black buck and Gharial.

However, apart from the good status of Wildlife Conservation, there are several dark side that drags Nepal back for additional success. Some of them are:-

1. Illegal trade.

2. Insufficient anti-poaching patrols and security equipment's in some of the protected areas located in the Himalayan region.

3. Insufficient awareness in the rural areas.

4. Proper allocation of funding with quality evaluation.

5. Extensive research and conservation of big mammals leaving other endangered small mammals in shadow. 

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."                                                                                                                                                                                          -Winston Churchill

 

References (Link):

https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/no-rhino-census-this-year-as-nepal-runs-short-of-funds-for-survey/

https://thediplomat.com/2018/08/nepals-success-in-wildlife-conservation/

http://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/all_publications/?335795/Nepals-Zero-Poaching-Standard

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/09/tiger-population-nepal-endangered-big-cats-news/

(Photo © - Sagar Giri)