Tigers of the High Himalayas

[Rishi]

Bhutanese Tiger Expert Calls For Creating New, Cross-Border Tiger Landscape.
OCTOBER 23, 2019

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Bhutan is home to about three percent (more than100 tigers) of the total global tiger population today. The Bengal Tiger in Bhutan are found all the way from subtropical forests and flood plains adjoining Assam to cloud forests at 4,500 metres from the sea level.

Head of Global Tiger Centre in Gelephu, Tshering Tempa (PhD), during the third Bhutan Lectures in Innovation  Science and Society (BLISS) talk last week in Thimphu, said that Bhutan was proposing for a sanctuary for the tigers in the south Asian region.
He said that the growing human population and other developmental activities threaten the long-term “persistence and viability of tigers” in the region.

The East Himalayan landscape is nearly devoid of developmental pressure, he added. It stretches from the mountains of Bhutan through the forests of Arunachal in India, skirting the southern boundary of China stretching southwards to the upper basin of Irrawaddy River in Myanmar.

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The proposal was to refocus the conservation efforts and pay closer attention to the second largest contiguous tiger conservation landscape in the world. This landscape, according to Tshering Tempa, has not received the attention and the priority it deserves, both in terms financial commitment and scientific focus.

He said, “If Bhutan is any indication of what the rest of this landscape looks like, then there is a hope because tigers continue to thrive in our mountains. From our work with collaring tigers, we are furthering our understanding of how the tigers use and navigate the landscapes,” he said.
“This will help us refine our conservation strategies and ensure not only the persistence of tigers but also to conserve the fecundity of these landscapes.”

If we manage to create, expand, and secure this Tigerscape, it will help protect two major river systems of the world. It will also ensure the livelihoods of more than half a billion people and store over nine billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. Reply