Status of the Feral Cattle in the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve and the Effectve Methods for Their Evacuation

Abstract

The present study has been undertaken in the four buffer zones Village Development Committees of the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR) which is located in the south eastern part of Nepal. The study is mainly focused on documenting the status of the feral cattle in the KTWR and the effective methods for their evacuation. KTWR is an important reserve for having the endangered wild water buffaloes. Due to the political instability after the Maosist insurgency and the vacuum created due to the absence of the reserve staffs the number of feral cattle, domesticated cattle, and the domesticated buffaloes had been significantly increased in the reserve which were the potential cause for habitat destruction of the reserve wild animals, loss in biodiversity and loss in the genetic pool. The primary aim of the study was to know the presence of the feral cattle and domesticated cattle in the KTWR and finding out ways for their evacuation. The study also includes the biodiversity condition of the reserve, positive and negative impacts of the feral cattle in the surrounding villages. Altogether 109 households were interviewed from the four buffer zone VDCs viz., Jagatpur, East-Pipra, Ghoghanpur, Kamalpur. The percentage of the feral cattle was 7.88%, lost cattle in the past 8.85%, lost buffaloes 0.6%, and domesticated cattle 82.64%. Mainly the cattle and buffaloes in the reserve were from the buffer zone villages and the surrounding villages and even from Indian border villages. Thousands of cattle were reported in the reserve and almost ninety percent of the cattle were from the Indian border villages and Nepalese relatives were helping to rear the Indian cattle inside the reserve. Most of the cattle in the reserves were domesticated and were going to the reserve regularly for grazing and were getting back regularly. People were using different techniques to rear the cattle inside the reserve like marking the cattle with the initial letter of Nepali and English alphabet of the owner and using different signs like Trishul in order to protect the cattle being lost and for the easier identification. Unity among the feral rearer group was found. They were giving salt to their cattle time to time which were feral and there was regular monitoring of the feral cattle. The feral cattle were brought back to home for two to three months in winter for dung cake and were left in the reserve for the rest of the months. Mostly this rearing for the feral cattle was done by the people who were having less shed area for the viii cattle and had increased the cattle in the recent years. Different people were engaged to rear the others domesticated cattle of the village by charging certain kilograms of paddy per cattle per year. In the past, to evacuate the feral cattle from the reserve, different methods was employed like free catch offer to the people and charging fines but all became futile. Different methods was sighted by the people in order to evacuate the feral cattle like formation of groups/committee who would find out the people who were having feral cattle and would give deadline for removal, giving grazing ground to the villagers for their cattle, free catch to the villagers, restriction of the cattle of Indian villages, delimiting the reserve boundary and doing fencing. People in the surrounding villages were benefitting a lot from the cattle grazing, but in the other side they were also deprived of the thatch grass as the cattle in the reserve had grazed a lot. Free entry in the reserve since the past had poached the wild animals like deer, wild boar and the migratory birds. Also the fish poisoning was high in the reserve wetlands which had caused a lot of loss in biodiversity. Illegal felling of the trees was found. Lack of awareness of the conservation measures among the people has forced to the continuous exploitation of the resources of the reserve. As the local people are poor and have tendency to depend on the reserve for cattle grazing and to extract other resources the conservation model which would be people oriented would be more beneficial in order to make the reserve free of feral cattle, domesticated cattle and the domesticated buffaloes.