APR 09, 2012
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| Manas park is estimated to have between 30-50 tigers (Photo courtesy UWICE) |
For two nuns of the Thinleygang dratshang in Ngangla gewog, Zhemgang, their prayers were answered. The nuns, on the way to relieve themselves in the forest, encountered a leopard but no harm was done.
The incident happened at around five in the morning. The nuns, carrying only a torch, noticed small stones falling from the boulders near them. When they shone the torch up, an adult leopard jumped down from the boulder, glanced at them and continued downward.
“We’d been hearing weird sounds at night for the past few months, which we believe was the leopard,” the lam of the dratshang said. “We have nuns, who are five to 34 years old.”
The nuns are not the only ones in Ngangla gewog encountering wild cats.
Last month, in Marangdut village in the same gewog, a farmer lost his cow, only to find its limbs the next day in the forest nearby. The cow, forest officials confirmed, had been killed by a tiger that had come up from across the border of India’s Manas tiger reserve.
“This is the second time, the first happened in 2008,” the farmer said, over a telephone interview, adding that he didn’t report it forest officials, since he did not get any compensation or protection for his animals. “For us, our livestock means everything,” he said. “We see tigers roaming nearby our house at night and it’s scary.”
Several such cases were also reported in other villages under Ngangla gewog that consists of Sonamthang, Thinleygang, Rebati, Marangdut, Pongchaling, Ngangla Trong, Kaktong and Chutoe with 549 households.
Ngangla falls under the Royal Manas national park, located in the southern foothills of Bhutan, and borders with India’s Manas tiger reserve. Manas is home to many endangered wildlife species, including leopard and tiger, forest officials said.
Other animals found are the Indian one-horned rhinoceros, elephant, Asiatic water buffalo, wild dog, golden langur, and critically endangered species like pigmy hog and hispid hare. Manas is also home to more than 350 species of birds.
Carnivores, other than tigers in Manas, are the common leopard, clouded leopard, jungle cats, Asiatic golden cat, leopard cat, marbled cat, large Indian civets, small Indian civets, Himalayan yellow throated martens, mongooses, otters, ferret badger and binturong.
“In most cases of human-wildlife conflict, where farmers lost their livestock, are mainly because of the tigers,” a forest official said. “So far this year, we’ve confirmed through camera traps of two tigers that came from across the border,” he said, adding that this is because of the prescribed periodic forest fire carried out in the Indian border areas.
Prescribed burning is a tool that can be very useful in management of natural areas, particularly native grass areas. It helps reduce invasive plant species, reduce potential fire hazards from accumulated dead or dry grass, and recycle valuable nutrients back into the soil where it will be used by new vegetation.
Some plant seeds only germinate after a hot fire, and fire-resistant roots allow them to sprout quickly, while using nutrients released during the fire forest, officials said.
Study by UWICE in Bumthang conclude that, in most places, tigers are wary of human beings and avoid encounters. The total tiger estimated through 27 camera traps in Royal Manas national park is 30-50 tigers.
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