The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Wangchuck Centennial Park in Bumthang had captured yet another tiger in their camera traps set in August last year in Nubi gewog under Trongsa Dzongkhag. The camera traps were set up to validate the complaints of numerous livestock depredation cases by Tigers in the area.
According to the Park’s Forestry Officer, Karma Thukten, they received a call from Nubi Tshogpa on 10 August last year. “He called us claiming compensation since the kills were made by Tiger,” Karma Thukten said. As per the norms, the affected are eligible to certain amounts from the government as compensation to the kills the tiger make of the domestic animals.
Accordingly, the park dispatched a team of two park officials to verify the claim by the Tshogpa. “Although the area is not within the purview of WCP, we carried on after discussing with Zhemgang forest division and other relevant authorities,” stated the report.
Ensuring that the camera traps yield the best results, the team laid 10 camera traps along the trails and routes believed to be frequented by the tiger on August 11. “The camera traps were laid in the Karshong and Gagar areas to confirm the presence of the tiger in the area,” says the report. However, “the results proved futile” as no Tiger was captured.
According to the report, “Save for other animals such as Barking deer, wild pig, wild dog, Porcupine, squirrel, Himalayan Black bear, Monkeys and other avian fauna,” tiger didn’t appear in the frames when they retrieved the camera images.
Having failed at first attempt, the team went for the second couple of weeks later by shifting the location of their camera traps to Jongthang area. “A total of nine camera traps were set up in different strategic locations of Jongthang area on 27 August,” the report stated.
The camera traps when retrieved recently yielded an overwhelming result from these locations. The camera traps in Jongthang could capture the Tiger not only confirming its presence in the area but also the kills.
The investigation team then reported back that as per their investigation, at least 26 livestock have been depredated by the Tiger in the area so far. The ten were the most recent cases, from which eight cases were compensated with Nu 3,000 per cattle killed by the tiger.
