pass easily through the porous border to India, where the major dealers are based. One major problem is complicity between senior officials and mafia networks involved in the trade. Conservation experts credit the increase in numbers to the effective policing of national parks, stronger anti-poaching drives and better management of tiger habitats in Nepal, where forests cover 29% of the land. But they say Nepal needs to do more to protect the habitat and animals on which tigers prey so the big cats have enough space to roam and food to eat. As the number of tigers has increased over the years, so have incidents of conflict with villagers. Seven people were killed in attacks by tigers around national parks in 2012 compared to four in 2011, park officials said. Villagers are also seeking better protection.” The government is making conservation plans for tigers. But it should also come up with plans to protect people from tigers,” Krishna Bhurtel, a local village headman in Chitwan, told Nepali newspaper Nagarik. Wildlife authorities captured a tiger in Chitwan after it killed two people, including a villager who was pulled from his bed in May. Thousands of tigers once roamed the forests in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. But their numbers have dropped to about 3,000, a 95% drop over a century. Chitwan National Park in central Nepal has the highest number of adult tigers,