Bardiya
In Bardiya, over 200 wild animals have been captured in just five years — including 35 tigers. Nepal’s officials dress it up as “management of problematic wildlife.” But this is not conservation, it is removal, containment, and control.
Bardiya’s forests are supposed to be wild. Tigers, leopards, rhinos, and crocodiles belong there. When they step into villages, it is not because they are “problematic.” It is because their habitats are shrinking, their corridors cut off, and human settlements keep expanding into the park’s edges. Yet the response of the forest department is always the same: dart guns, cages, and transfers.
This year alone, 11 tigers were taken out of Bardiya. Some now languish in cages at park offices. Others disappear into transfers across districts. The department claims it is for safety, but whose safety? Human safety only. For the tiger, there is no safety in captivity.
Bardiya is being emptied of its wildness. And Nepal calls this conservation. This is political failure.
The Bardiya article
Based on The Rising Nepal, Nepal
Photo via The Rising Nepal.
