﻿Tigers are more numerous in Nepal than at any time since the 1970s, a new census has revealed, giving conservationists hope that the big cats, whose numbers have been dropping across south Asia for 100 years, can be saved. 
The number of wild royal bengal tigers in Nepal has increased to 198 – a 63.6% rise in five years – the government survey showed.” This is very encouraging,” said Maheshwar Dhakal, an ecologist with Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. 
The census is based on the examination of pictures from more than 500 cameras placed in five protected areas and three wildlife corridors. More than 250 conservationists and wildlife experts worked on the survey, which cost about £250,000. 
Dhakal said that a parallel survey was conducted in India and the results from both countries will be published later in 2013.” It will take a few more months for India, which now has 1,300 big cats in several huge protected areas, to finalize the data,” he added. 
Nepal has pledged to double the population of tigers by the year 2022 from 121 in 2009 when the last systematic tiger count took place. Increasing prosperity in Asia has pushed up prices for tiger skins and the body parts used in traditional Chinese medicines. International gangs pay poor local Nepali significant sums to kill the cats. The skin and bones are handed to middlemen, who pass easily through the porous border to India, where the major dealers are based.