KATHMANDU – Nandakala Thapa of Kailali district died in a tiger attack on January 1 (Friday) night while returning home from Nepalgunj. The wildlife bounced her along the East-West Highway within the boundary of Bardiya National Park. Her dead body was found scattered in a nearby forest on Saturday.
Similarly, in another incident, world’s endangered species Bengal tiger died when it was hit hard by a vehicle on Amlekhgunj section along the East-West Highway on 2 January. The incident site was also the boundary of a national park. A car had knocked down the tiger while it was crossing through the road.
These are the two representative incidents of human-wildlife loss in the country of late. In this way the incidents of conflict between human being and wildlife are increasing in different areas including the highways, roads and habitats.
Such incidents are on the rise when precautions are not made while developing infrastructures such as road, irrigation, transmission lines and railway links and environmental aspects are not considered well.
With the occurrence of such incidents, on the one hand the country’s big investment on bio-diversity is wasting and on the other the achievements made so far on conservation front are likely to be ruined.