Nepal’s fragile conservation network is under new pressure after the escape of dozens of convicted poachers during the violent September uprising that toppled the government. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation has ordered round-the-clock patrols in all reserves, including Chitwan, the country’s most vital tiger and rhino habitat. What began as political unrest has now become a direct threat to the nation’s most celebrated wildlife achievements.
The crisis after the escape
According to Bed Kumar Dhakal, deputy director general of Nepal’s wildlife department, more than fifty poachers fled their prison cells when 14,500 detainees broke free during anti-government riots. Of these, at least eighteen are confirmed wildlife offenders — men once caught for killing rhinos, smuggling tiger skins, or trading ivory across Nepal’s porous borders. Their escape has reignited fears of renewed poaching in areas that had seen record success in species recovery.
Many fugitives have since been recaptured after the escape, yet more than 5,000 remain missing nationwide. Conservation officers fear that some have already slipped back into the forests. “It’s an added threat to our conservation efforts,” Dhakal told the Bangladeshi news agency BSS, noting that the department had instructed all national parks to intensify ground surveillance and drone patrols.
In Chitwan National Park — a UNESCO World Heritage site and symbol of Nepal’s ecological revival — teams have been reinforced with military support. Local ranger Avinash Thapa Magar confirmed that community patrols and surveillance posts have doubled in frequency, focusing on critical tiger corridors and rhino grazing zones.
A legacy under threat
Nepal’s conservation record has been a rare global success. Through years of investment in anti-poaching patrols and community engagement, the country has nearly tripled its tiger population to 355 since 2010. The one-horned rhinoceros, once reduced to just over a hundred individuals in the 1960s, climbed to 752 by 2021.
But progress can unravel fast. One coordinated poaching network can undo a decade of recovery. With the escape of these convicts, the black market for tiger parts and rhino horns could again find footholds in the Tarai lowlands — where enforcement depends on stability and trust between rangers and locals.
Politics and wildlife: the uneasy connection
The timing of the escape has amplified public frustration. The uprising, triggered by a ban on social media and widespread anger over corruption, evolved into one of the most violent political collapses in Nepal’s recent history. At least seventy-six people were killed when protestors torched government buildings, and security forces withdrew from several districts to control riots.
In the chaos, the prisons fell. Poachers took their chance. Escape was arranged. For the rangers who now walk the same forests these men once looted, the sense of déjà vu is painful. Each patrol now carries the weight of suspicion — every fresh footprint could belong to a hunter returning to old habits.
The forests hold their breath
New interim prime minister Sushila Karki, a former chief justice, has vowed to restore order and safeguard conservation zones until elections in March 2026. But rebuilding the operational strength of anti-poaching units will take time. Officers in Chitwan and Bardiya report shortages of drones, night-vision gear, and trained personnel.
The broader threat, however, lies beyond equipment. It lies in confidence. For fifteen years, Nepal’s anti-poaching network has relied on trust — between villagers who report traps, guards who risk their lives, and scientists who track every tiger that crosses a river. If fear returns, cooperation may falter.
Echoes of global trafficking
The Department of National Parks has asked Interpol for assistance in tracing fugitives known for traffhttps://30yearstigernewsshow.com/snares-and-traps-tigers-silent-killers/icking tiger bones and rhino horns. Conservationists hope that renewed patrols will act as both deterrent and reassurance. But on the ground, rangers know that the jungle forgets nothing — it remembers the smell of gunsmoke and fear.
The cost of vigilance
The story of Nepal’s conservation success has always been written in patience, not celebration. For every tiger counted, a guard stood unseen in monsoon rain. For every rhino calf born, a patrol walked another night through silence. The escape threatens not only animals but the faith that protection works.
Still, the forests endure. Tigers continue to move through the tall grasses of Chitwan, unseen but present. Their survival now depends on whether the nation that saved them can stay alert in the face of unrest.
Nepal has shown the world what persistence can achieve. Now it must prove that even chaos cannot break that will.
Source: BSS News, Nepal
