What determines attitude of local people towards tiger and leopard in Nepal?

Rajendra  Dhungana; Tek Maraseni; Thakur  Silwal; Kishor  Aryal; Jhamak Bahadur  Karki

doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2022.126223

Back

What determines attitude of local people towards tiger and leopard in Nepal?

Journal article

Peer reviewed

What determines attitude of local people towards tiger and leopard in Nepal?

Rajendra Dhungana, Tek Maraseni, Thakur Silwal, Kishor Aryal and Jhamak Bahadur Karki

Journal for Nature Conservation, Vol.68, pp.1-9

2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2022.126223

Appears in UniSC Diversity and Inclusion Research Collection

Files and links (1)

url

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2022.126223View

Published Version

Abstract

attitude

big cat

Chitwan

human-tiger conflict

human-leopard conflict

widlife conservation

UniSC Diversity Area - Life Stages

Understanding attitude of local people towards big cats is vital for conservation interventions to succeed. Taking tigers and leopards as focal species, we investigated local peoples' attitude towards four subjects—tiger, tiger conservation, leopard, and leopard conservation—considering demographic and socio-economic factors as well as past experience with such predators in Nepal's first national park and a world heritage site, Chitwan National Park. The data were collected from 414 local people using structured questionnaires and their attitude towards the four subjects determined. We performed ordinal logistic regression analysis to identify the best fitted model and significant variables affecting attitudes. While majority of the people (51%) strongly liked tigers, fewer people (38%) had similar view while it came to leopard. However, a greater proportion of people strongly agreed that the conservation of tigers (61%) and leopards (53%) is important. About 12% people had negative attitude towards both big cats. We found women and low income respondents to likely have negative attitudes and higher caste Hindus to have positive attitudes towards both big cats and their conservation. Better educated persons and the owners to larger herds of livestock only agreed on conservation of tiger but not leopard. Past experience with the predator negatively affected attitude towards tiger but not leopard. We suggest the identified cohort of people with negative attitudes be more targeted in conservation initiatives. The reasons behind the similarities and differences in peoples’ attitudes are discussed and designation of species-specific programmes for both cats is recommended.

Details

Title: What determines attitude of local people towards tiger and leopard in Nepal?
Authors: Rajendra Dhungana (Author) - Ministry of Forests and Environment
Tek Maraseni (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Tropical Forests & People Research Centre
Thakur Silwal (Author) - Tribhuvan University
Kishor Aryal (Author) - University of Southern Queensland
Jhamak Bahadur Karki (Author) - Kathmandu Forestry College
Publication details: Journal for Nature Conservation, Vol.68, pp.1-9
Publisher: Elsevier GmbH
Date published: 2022
DOI: 10.1016/j.jnc.2022.126223
ISSN: 1618-1093
Organisation Unit: Tropical Forests & People Research Centre; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99649775402621
Output Type: Journal article

Metrics

30 Record Views

12 Times Cited - Web of Science

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Biodiversity Conservation; Ecology

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

Source: InCites