Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2026 | 18(2): 28447–28450
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.10022.18.2.28447-28450
#10022 | Received 02 July 2025 | Final received 19 November 2025 |
Finally accepted 03 January 2026
Record of a Tiger Panthera tigris (Linnaeus, 1758) (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae)
in Saptari District of eastern Nepal: implications
for conservation and habitat connectivity
Gobinda Prasad Pokharel 1 , Chiranjibi Prasad Pokheral
2 , Ashish Gurung 3
, Bishnu Singh Thakuri
4 ,
Ambika Prasad Khatiwada 5 , Aastha Joshi 6 , Birendra Gautam 7 , Mithilesh Mahato
8 ,
Naresh Subedi 9 & Madhu Chetri 10
1–7, 9–10 National Trust for Nature
Conservation, P.O. Box 3712, Khumaltar, Lalitpur,
Nepal.
8 Department of National Parks and
Wildlife Conservation, P.O. Box 860, Babar Mahal, Kathmandu, Nepal.
1 govindapokhrel90@gmail.com, 2
pokheralchiran@gmail.com, 3 asisgrg1984@gmail.com, 4
bishnu.thakuri@gmail.com,
5 ambikapdkhatiwada@gmail.com, 6
merry.aj21@gmail.com, 7 birendragtm@gmail.com, 8
mithilesh.mahato12@gmail.com,
9 nareshsubedi@gmail.com, 10
mchetri@gmail.com (corresponding author)
Editor: Angie Appel, Wild Cat
Network, Germany. Date of publication: 26 February 2026 (online & print)
Citation:
Pokharel, G.P., C.P. Pokheral, A. Gurung, B.S. Thakuri, A.P. Khatiwada, A.
Joshi, B. Gautam, M. Mahato, N. Subedi
& M. Chetri (2026). Record of a
Tiger Panthera tigris
(Linnaeus, 1758) (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in Saptari
District of eastern Nepal: implications for conservation and habitat
connectivity. Journal of Threatened Taxa 18(2): 28447–28450. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.10022.18.2.28447-28450
Copyright: © Pokharel et al. 2026. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: We thank all the people involved in the rescue operation of the Tiger in Fattepur for their collaboration and support. In particular, we are thankful to personnel of the National Trust for Nature Conservation – Purusottam Mudbary (Senior veterinary technician) and Suresh Shahi (Wildlife technician), and to Major Ramesh Gurung (Nepal Army), Ramdew Chaudhary (Senior conservation officer, KTWR), Krishna Dhakal (Mayor of Saptakoshi Municipality). We are also grateful to Dr. Ramchandra Kandel, director general of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, and Ramchandra Khatiwada, senior conservation officer of Parsa National Park for coordinating and supporting our team in the field.
The
Tiger Panthera tigris
occurs in 10 countries with a global population estimated at fewer than 4,000
mature individuals; it is listed as ‘Endangered’ in the IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species (Goodrich et al. 2022). In Nepal, it has been legally
protected as a priority species under the National Parks and Wildlife
Conservation Act, 1973 (Jnawali et al. 2011). Despite
persistent threats due to poaching and habitat loss (Goodrich et al. 2022),
populations have gradually increased in India and Nepal since 2010 (Jhala et al. 2019; DNPWC & DFSC 2022).
Nepal’s
Tiger population is distributed primarily in the lowlands of the Terai, straddling along the international border with India
(Thapa & Kelly 2017). This region is included in the transboundary Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) covering 50,911 km2
from Rajaji National Park in northwestern India to Parsa
National Park and adjoining forests in southcentral Nepal (Thapa et al. 2017).
The Nepal part of the TAL comprises about 24,710 km2 and encompasses
five protected areas and seven wildlife corridors, all surrounded by a largely
agricultural landscape (Bhatt et al. 2023; Figure 1). The Tiger was documented
in 16 districts during the 2022 National Tiger Survey, which covered a sampling
area of 18,928 km2 in the TAL (DNPWC & DFSC 2022). The national
population was estimated at 344–403 individuals, with the easternmost record in
a forest in Rautahat District, located to the east of
Parsa National Park (DNPWC & DFSC 2022). As the
Tiger population continues to rise, available habitats inside protected areas
are becoming increasingly limited, highlighting the urgent need for habitat
expansion and improving management (DNPWC & DFSC 2022).
Beyond
the TAL, a Tiger was killed in the early 2000s in a village at the southern
edge of the Trijuga Forest in Saptari
District (Shah et al. 2018). The Tiger was known to exist in this area in the
early 1970s, but was not recorded during a survey in
1994 (Smith et al. 1998). This national forest covers about 442 km2
at an elevation of 104–430 m and is surrounded by community-managed forests,
croplands, and settlements (Pokharel et al. 2022). It predominantly harbours deciduous tree species and hosts at least 86
vertebrates including 37 mammals (Shah et al. 2018). The area receives an
annual rainfall of 1,159–2,827 mm, and the average annual temperature is in the
range of 23–25.5°C (Pokharel et al. 2022).
Further
east in Nepal, a single adult Tiger was photographed in November 2020 at an
elevation of 3,165 m during a camera trapping survey in Ilam
District (Bista et al. 2021). Across the
international border with India, the Tiger has also been recorded in Mahananda
Wildlife Sanctuary and Neora Valley National Park
located in the northeastern hills of West Bengal (Qureshi et al. 2023).
Long-distance dispersal
by female Tigers was considered rather unusual, with a maximum linear distance
of 43.2 km documented in Chitwan National Park in the early 1990s (Smith 1993).
However, in central India, a female Tiger moved 340 km, traversed 19 stopover
sites in 78 days and established her home range 99.1 km away from her natal
area (Sarkar et al. 2021).
In light of this
dispersal distance, two scenarios for the arrival of the Tigress in the Trijuga Forest area are plausible. It may have come from
the eastern part of the TAL, traversing the hills in an easterly direction. The
linear distance between the eastern edge of the TAL and the Trijuga
Forest is about 120 km (Shah et al. 2018). The Tigress may also have crossed
through the hills from Ilam District in a
south-westerly direction. The linear distance from the locality record of the
Tiger in this area is about 100 km.
Wherever the Tigress came
from, its arrival in Saptari District underscores the
need to extend surveys to remnant forests beyond the TAL in eastern Nepal. As
documented in the Chitwan-Parsa National Parks
complex, tigers readily and rapidly resettle areas as prey availability,
habitat quality and connectivity are improved (Lamichhane
et al. 2018). Potential Tiger prey species in the Trijuga
Forest include Chital Axis axis, Northern Red Muntjac Muntiacus vaginalis, and Wild Boar Sus scrofa
(Shah et al. 2018). Wildlife corridors connecting the Trijuga
Forest with Tiger-bearing areas in the TAL and in eastern Nepal will still need
to be identified to establish safe migration routes and facilitate the
expansion of Nepal’s Tiger population (DNPWC 2023). However, human-dominated
areas pose significant conservation challenges, including an increased risk of
human-wildlife negative interactions (Karanth et al.
2012; Sharma & Neupane 2023). An evidence-based,
community-centred approach combined with programs to
raise conservation awareness is, therefore, essential to ensure the long-term
survival of the Tiger also outside designated protected areas.
For figure & images - -
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