India and Nepal launch major tiger study

Royal Bengal tigers' spread across Nepal and India will be recorded as part of a new joint survey.

Forest and nature protection officials from the two South Asian nations are aiming to identify the exact number of tigers living in the Terai Arc region.

This zone, which is estimated to be home to 500 tigers, spreads for more than 600 miles across India through the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and into southern Nepal.

As part of the survey hundreds of camera traps will be set up at a dozen forests and nature reserves across the region to help record and identify tigers.

It will also aim to boost conservation strategies by analysing the availability of prey.

The survey is being led by governments in both Nepal and India with support from organisations including the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Director general of Nepal's Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Megh Bahadur Pandey, told the BBC: "The same tiger trapped by a camera here on the Nepali side could cross over into India, but that tiger will be trapped by another camera there."