As winter bids adieu to the Northern Hemisphere and the mercury peaks and humidity plummets, most of Nepal’s plains and hills become tinderboxes awaiting a spark. As officials face a gargantuan task of controlling wildfires, some authorities from Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation are themselves involved in starting fires in the name of “habitat management,” especially inside national parks in the plains. They say they believe that fires are a cost-effective tool to prevent grasslands, which provide habitat for Nepal’s iconic tigers (Panthera tigris) and their prey such as deer and chital (Axis axis), from turning into forests, and to promote the growth of fresh and nutritious grass sprouts. But the traditional approach to grassland management may not be working, says researcher Shyam Thapa, who recently completed his Ph.D. in wildlife conservation and ecology from the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands. During his study, Thapa looked at steps that need to be taken at Bardiya National Park, home to a third of the country’s 355 tigers, so that tiger prey herbivores, such a deer, get to eat more quality grass and their health as well as numbers improve. Thapa and another researcher examining the ground of the grassland. Image courtesy of Shyam Thapa. Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi met Thapa in Kathmandu recently to talk about the findings of his research and its implications for conservation in Nepal. The following interview has been translated from Nepali and edited for clarity. Mongabay: With the start of the spring…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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