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Our News
Living with the big cats in Trongsa
Times are changing for the community of Jongthang village in Nubi, Trongsa. The community characterized by traditional structures and terraced paddy fields sits amid a vast expanse of forests and towering peaks. The reverence for nature and wildlife continues to have a stronghold on the community’s culture and tradition, but with increasing loss of livestock to the tigers their faith is challenged.
Times are changing for the community of Jongthang village in Nubi, Trongsa. The community characterized by traditional structures and terraced paddy fields sits amid a vast expanse of forests and towering peaks.
The reverence for nature and wildlife continues to have a stronghold on the community’s culture and tradition, but with increasing loss of livestock to the tigers their faith is challenged. These forests and peaks are critical components of biological corridor eight that connects Wangchuck Centennial Park, Jigme Dorji National Park and Jigme Khesar Strict Nature Reserve.
Often referred to as Mem Pham and revered by generations, the tigers have unlike in the past started preying more on cattle, coming into the community for the hunt.
Trongsa reported close to 600 cases of livestock depredation by tigers between 2020 and 2024. Nubi gewog alone reported 360 cases in the same year. It is one of the highest numbers of human-tiger conflict cases reported by a community in the country.
Cow herder Sonam in Jongthang, Trongsa © Aaron Gekoski/WWF-US
Sharing the space with tigers
Sonam, 58, has spent most of life herding cattle, and has encountered a tiger and seen countless tiger pug marks. He recalls an unexpected encounter with the tiger. “It is a giant animal but a swift one. The furs on its forehead glow like a gold, whiskers are longer than our palm,” said Sonam.
Sonam and his friend escaped the scene unhurt as the tiger jumped off the path within seconds. “Unlike in the past, tigers have started attacking our livestock frequently,” he said, adding he was not sure why the incidents were increasing.
The government and relevant authority are working with the community, helping them coexist peacefully with tigers. Several nature-based interventions that allow farmers to rear livestock are being implemented.
However, herding cattle and living a life of a farmer in a remote village such as Jongthang is limited to ageing parents today. The young and educated ones leave for better opportunities in urban areas or abroad.
There are drastic changes in livestock rearing. Migrating with cattle during summer and winter is non-existent now. As tigers prey more and more on cattle, the tigers attack from near the village are becoming more frequent.
In all these daily struggles and discomfort, Jongthang is prospering each day. Roads have reached the village, mechanized farming is here and a new way of guarding cattle from wildlife depredations are put in place.
The Deparment of Forests and Park Services have developed a community pastureland that allow cattles to graze inside a fenced grazing land. This allow farmers to focus on other works without having to look after the cattle.
Other innovative technologies are also being explored.
Fenced community pastureland in Draagteng,Trongsa © Aaron Gekoski/WWF-US
In gratitude
As a communications officer working with a conservation organization, I also visited another community, Draagteng, which has developed community pastureland through a project.
The community leaders said there are benefits the project brought to the community. Tending to cattle is made easier and safe with paddy fields serving as a grazing land after the harvest. By the time the paddy fields become fallow, the community pastureland located above the village is ready to serve as another safe grazing area.
The community pastureland was developed with support from the Department of Forests and Park Services and WWF-Bhutan to address the problem of tiger and wildife attacking livestock in the community.
Farmers say that the number of human tiger conflict in Draagteng is decreasing. More and more farmers are choosing to insure their cattle. The pastureland has allowed farmers to focus on other important farming works in the village. However, there are also other wild animals preying on the livestock such as leopards, wild dogs and more.
The Future
The efforts to help people and wildlife share space in harmony continues. Officials work together with communities, designing and developing interventions that can help farmers share space with tigers pracefully.
The pastureland development and insurance schemes were developed after receiving suggestions from the people on ground.
The number of human wildlife conflict cases are falling. However, there is a need to understand that conservation interventions are more than securing the lives of people. It’s about creating a space where wildlife flourish and people prosper.
Draagteng falls near the biological corridor, rich in biodiversity values and landscapes that are home to critical species with high ecological values which supports the lives of both people and wildife.
WWF-Bhutan and the Department of Forests and Park Services recently launched C2C: Conflict to Coexistence (C2C) Strategy for Trong gewog (block), Zhemgang. The strategy paves a hollistic approach to addressing the pressing challenges of human-wildlife conflict while fostering a harmonious relationship between communities and rich biodiversity.
As we seek better homes for ourselves, I hope we get to celebrate the harmonious coexistence of nature and people.
© Aaron Gekoski/WWF-US