Overview
The central terai landscape has > 3,000 km2 of intact forest including Chitwan and Parsa National Parks of Nepal and Valmiki Tiger Reserve of India and supports >80 wild elephants, 700 greater one-horned rhinoceros and about 200 tigers. Until the 1980s, only 13 wild elephants were reported in this landscape and the population has now reached >80 residential individuals. Land use landcover is also changing with the increased human population and infrastructure development. About 25% forest loss and heavy fragmentation have occurred in CTML in last few decades. The elephants dispersing from India enters Nepal in Jhapa district and move up to Chitwan National Park and many individuals become residential. This trend of migration and colonization is likely to lead to a big elephant population in this landscape and growing problem of human-elephant conflict (HEC) is imminent. The project aims to strengthen human-elephant coexistence (HECx) in the central CTML by addressing the key HEC challenges.
Community awareness training on human-elephant coexistence
Community interaction on human-elephant conflict
Community training on human-elephant coexistence
Demonstrating offset fence technology in Jhapa
Stakeholder event to promote knowledge and collaboration for human-elephant coexistence
Project objectives
- Increase human tolerance towards wild elephants
- Strengthen regional network and transboundary cooperation on elephant conservation
- Enhance local and provincial capacity on managing HEC
Expected outputs
- 40 community volunteers reach 18,000 people raising HECx awareness
- Enhanced knowledge and science on elephant conservation at regional scale
- 90 people including political personalities, forest and park authorities and frontline staff have better knowledge on addressing HEC issues
- 5 Divisional Forest Office and 2 national parks are better equipped to respond to HEC incidents
- Community monitoring of 5 problematic elephant bulls
- A landscape-level HECx plan for central CTML
- 3 local level transboundary elephant conservation meetings
Project outcome
HECx improves in the central CTML through a combination of community awareness, better capacity of the institutions directly concerned with managing HEC and increased political commitment to promoting HECx.
Project partners
- Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation
- Chitwan and Parsa National Parks
- Division Forest Office (Chitwan, Nawalpur, Bara, Parsa, Rautahat and Makawanpur)
Project duration: August 2024 to July 2027
Budget: $542,940 ($487,320 USFWS; $ 55,670 NTNC)
Principal Investigator (PI): Dr. Naresh Subedi, Member Secretary, NTNC
Co-PI: Birendra Gautam, Program Officer, Koshi Conservation Center, NTNC
Contact: nareshsubedi@gmail.com, Phone: +977-9855056934; birendragtm@gmail.com, Phone: +977-9841985563
The project is supported by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
