As majestic as it is rare, the Bengal tiger stands at the centre of Nepal’s conservation success story. The country will launch its fifth national tiger census on Tuesday, using advanced scientific methods and more than 2,300 automated camera traps across key tiger habitats to determine the current tiger population in Nepal.

The census, conducted once every four years, is being coordinated by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation in collaboration with the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), WWF Nepal, the Zoological Society of London and other partners. The exercise will cover around 8,400 square kilometres and is expected to continue until mid-March, 2026.

According to the department, the census area has been divided into three major blocks: Chitwan-Parsa, Banke-Bardiya and Shuklaphanta-Laljhadi. These blocks include national parks, biological corridors and surrounding buffer zones, reflecting Nepal’s landscape-level approach to tiger conservation.

“The goal this time is not only to count tigers but also to understand habitat quality, prey availability and human pressures,” said senior ecologist Haribhadra Acharya, coordinator of the National Tiger Census Technical Committee. “We are using a fully standardised, scientific methodology across the nation."

Camera installation work in the Chitwan-Parsa block will be carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday. The block, Nepal’s largest tiger landscape, has been divided into three sub-sections because of its size and limited camera availability. Each grid covers two by two square kilometres, with a pair of cameras installed facing each other to capture both flanks of passing tigers.

There are around 800 to 900 grids in this block alone, Acharya said. “For one sub-section of 250 to 300 grids, we need more than 500 cameras,” he said. “Due to resource constraints, we will move cameras sequentially.” Completing the census in this block is expected to take more than two months.

Similarly, the Banke-Bardiya block has been divided into five sub-sections—two each in Bardiya and Banke districts and one in Dang district. About 800 grids have been distributed across these sections.

“We will start setting up cameras in Bardiya from December 20,” said Ajit Tumbahamphe, chief of NTNC Bardiya. “Although around 500 cameras are required for this block, we have received just over 300 so far.”

Despite logistical challenges, conservationists say the phased approach allows efficient use of equipment and trained personnel without compromising data quality.

The Shuklaphanta-Laljhadi corridor has been designated as a single block with 260 grids. Census work will begin here only after cameras are freed from the Chitwan-Parsa block. Each camera station will remain active for 15 nights. Including installation and retrieval, it takes at least 22 days to complete the work in this block.

In the 2022 tiger census, a total of 1,843 cameras were used. “This time, the number has increased to 2,300, reflecting improved capacity and ambition,” said NTNC Member Secretary Naresh Subedi.

Alongside the census, a tiger occupancy survey will be conducted from the Koshi in the east to Mahakali in the west, tracking signs such as pugmarks, scat and scratch marks in areas where tigers are known or suspected to roam.

Around 250 trained human resources will be mobilised nationwide during the census. Local residents, scientists, students and staff from division forest offices will also be involved as needed. Teams will camp in tents at safe forest-edge locations, regularly monitoring cameras, collecting memory cards and maintaining records.

Camera traps will be placed along forest roads, riverbanks, junctions, fire lines, ridges, trails and near salt licks and water sources—the locations that are frequently used by tigers. Installed four to five metres from trails and 45 to 60 centimetres above ground, the motion sensors are triggered by changes in heat and movement, capturing images day and night.

The census will also monitor prey species such as deer and wild boar using the line transect method, estimating density per kilometre walked. A patch occupancy survey will assess human activities around forest areas. “This exercise tells us far more than just tiger numbers. It provides valuable information about park management, habitat restoration and tourism planning,” said Tumbahamphe.

While tigers may appear similar at first glance, each individual has a unique stripe pattern, much like a human fingerprint. Since 2009, Nepal has relied on camera traps rather than pugmark analysis to identify individual tigers. To minimise errors, expert teams will cross-check results before final numbers are released. “If everything goes as planned, we aim to make the results public on July 29, 2026, coinciding with International Tiger Day,” said Acharya.

Tigers, as apex predators, play a critical role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. “We destroy forests for roads and settlements and then complain that tigers enter villages. Tigers haven’t entered settlements; settlements have entered tiger habitats,” said Tumbahamphe. “A tiger is carnivorous, but not violent. The biggest threat to tigers is humans,” he said, emphasising the need for coexistence.

According to conservationists, tiger conservation also brings economic benefits through ecosystem services and tourism. Tiger expert Baburam Lamichhane noted that forests where tigers thrive are usually ecologically intact. “Protecting one tiger means protecting countless other species and ecological processes,” he said.

When Nepal began scientific tiger counts in 2009, the country had just 121 tigers. Numbers rose to 198 in 2013, 235 in 2018 and 355 in 2022. Chitwan National Park and its adjoining forests host the highest population. In 2022, Chitwan had 128 tigers, followed by Bardiya with 125, Parsa with 41, Shuklaphanta with 36 and Banke with 25.

Nepal has a rare conservation success story to share. The country nearly tripled its tiger population over the past 12 years. This is a moment of pride and international recognition, said conservationist Hem Sagar Baral. “But recurring human-tiger conflicts, sometimes fatal, remain a serious concern,” he said. “If Nepal can demonstrate sustainable coexistence between people and tigers, it will set an example for the world.”