Fires along the southern Nepal border with India have devastated local forest ecosystems in both Nepal and India which has seen massive wildlife losses, officials in Kathmandu said. According to government officials, some 70 percent of Nepal's Bardiya National Park has been consumed by fire in the past few days. “We are working around the clock to make this situation better and to ensure no more animals are killed,” said the government. The park had been a great success story for Nepal and for elephant conservation, as well as being a refuge for endangered species such as tigers and rhinos. Officials said a lack of resources allowed the fires to spread rapidly. “We have not been able to assess the loss immediately because the fire is still raging at some places,” the park's chief conservation officer Tika Ram Adhikari told BBC News. “But given our past experiences, our estimate is that around 40 percent of small mammals, 60 percent of insects and significant number of birds have been lost in the fire.” Adhikari said big animals such as elephants and tigers might have been able to escape. “But we fear, at places, their babies might have died after getting trapped in the fire.” The national parks and conservation government officials are optimistic that the animals may have taken shelter and survived the devastation.
