A still from the BBC documentary 'The lost land of the Tigers'
BBC©
In the documentary Lost Land of the Tigers, BBC’s camera traps caught two Royal Bengal tigers at 4100 m in our mountains. This they claimed was not only an exciting new science but also proved that these majestic cats lived through out Bhutan. The documentary stunned experts and fascinated about 5 million viewers but it was not new to Bhutanese.
Bhutan is filled with local legends of tigers and it must be one of the few countries to name a mountain after this majestic cat. Bhutanese have known that the tiger habitat spreads throughout the country and in altitudes that is generally not regarded as tiger country.
Bhutan is filled with local legends of tigers and it must be one of the few countries to name a mountain after this majestic cat. Bhutanese have known that the tiger habitat spreads throughout the country and in altitudes that is generally not regarded as tiger country.
An English man was the first to record the evidence in 1975. However, until 2000, tiger experts around the world continued to believe that these cats moved as high as 2600 meters and never beyond.
“There has been two authentic records in recent years of one tiger at over 10,000 feet [3,048 m], another at 14,000 feet [4,267 m] Malcolm Lyell, the former, Managing Director of the Holland and Holland Gun Company noted during his fifth visit to Bhutan in 1975.
Like Lyell, Bhutanese have also documented these majestic cats. From 1996 to 2008, there have been at least four documentary footages of tigers above 3000 m. In 1996, 20 Bhutanese foresters led by renowned tiger enthusiast Mr. Charles Mcdougal found signs of tigers living at about 10,000 to 11,000 ft and higher.
In 2000, Dr. Pralad Yonzon, a wildlife biologist who had been hired as a consultant, recorded the first evidence of tigers living above 3000 meters at the Thrumshingla National Park. With the help of Bhutanese he set up camera traps that took photographs of the tiger (See photo). The research team also found pugmarks on snow-covered ground at Puchela (4,100 m) in the same park. Armed with new evidence, WWF, Bhutan broke the news and hoped to put to rest the “doubts in the minds of skeptics.”
Six years ago, Bhutanese were shocked to learn that tigers had killed cattle north of the capital, Thimphu, at 3,400 m further confirming the WWF’s statement. In 2008, one of the camera traps in Jigme Dorji National Park filmed a Royal Bengal Tiger at 4,200 meters in the snow.
Bhutan is not the only country where tigers inhabit the high altitude. There are evidences that two other Himalayan Buddhist kingdoms of Tibet and Sikkim also offered sanctuary to these majestic animals. Unfortunately in Nepal they were hunted and according to Lyell, it was unlikely that they were found above 3000 meters [ 9842 ft] because of the rampant hunting.
Lyell credited Bhutan for being the greatest preserve of wildlife in Asia. He attributed this to various factors, “Buddhism (not killing), huge areas of forest protect the forest animals and birds, few firearms, in north no firearms and blue sheep - takin, very much regarded as Royal game (although they are in fact almost the most numerous)”.
Lyell was always fascinated with Bhutan’s rich biodiversity and awed by the country’s determination to conserve the environment. In 1975, he gave a lecture on, Wild Animals of Bhutan in London. He said that while a frequent visitor described Bhutan as the Enchanted Land, another regular guest illustrated it as, ‘A Land of Exquisite Politeness.’ But he could not think of two more perfect descriptions than, ‘A Sanctuary for many of Asia’s animal species. ”
Lyell’s handwritten lecture notes talk about the tiger population in Bhutan probably making it the first documented evidence. He had three sources and all of them mentioned different numbers. According to his first source Dorji a foresters, it was estimated at 250. His second source was, “other Bhutanese who has also known the country well,” who said they were, “far more.” The third King was his third source. “On my first visit to Bhutan five years ago the Late King talked in terms of a thousand or more.”
Lyell was convinced that tigers had a safe sanctuary in Bhutan. He said, “it is probable that their population is not much different to what it was 15 years ago when the first roads were built or even 50 or 100 years ago-simply because the southern region is little inhabited, the forests have not been cut, and the basic food of tiger, namely pig & deer are there in abundance.” In his conclusion, Lyell stated that in any case there were definitely more tigers per square mile in Bhutan than in any of the near by countries where it is known to be common.
According to the last survey (McDougal & Tshering 1998), based on two different densities of tigers based on habitat type and elevation; there are more tigers in the south with a density of 1 tiger per 50 sq Km whereas in the central Himalayan region (temperate forest) the density is 1 tiger per 185 sq Km.
Today, the Wild Life Conservation Division is doing a more scientific nation wide census of the tiger. As of now, the population is estimated to be between 100-150 tigers. However, as the current tiger survey nears conclusion, Karma Jigme, of the WCD said that the actual number of tigers living above 4000 meters could be confirmed only after survey.
Contributed by Tshering Tashi
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