2.1. Study area
This study was conducted in SNP of Nepal that lies in the far western part of Nepal at 28° 42’ 29”N- 29° 03’ 27”N; 80° 03’ 08”E- 80°25’ 53”E and covers an area of 305 km2 with additional buffer zone area of 243 km2 (SNP, 2017) (Figure 1 ). Abandoned agriculture land occupies 7.87%, forest 65.02%, grassland 16.10%, shrub land 3.76% and water bodies 7.25% (NTNC, 2017). National highway passes through its upper tip breaking link with Mahabharat range. SNP possesses the largest patch of grassland in Nepal covering an area of 54 km2, called Shuklaphanta grassland, which is important for globally threatened species. Most of the park area is covered with Shorea robustaforest. Barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak ), blue bull (Boselaphus tragocamelus ), hog deer (Heylaphus porcinus ), rhesus macaque (Macaca mulata ) spotted deer, swamp deer, wild Asian elephant (Elephas maximus ), wild pig (Sus scrofa ), and are the major wild prey species of tiger in SNP (DNPWC, 2016; NTNC, 2017; Sharma et al., 2020). SNP hold most of the remaining swamp deer population including Lagga Bagga, Krishnapur and Dudhwa National Park of India (Duckworth et al., 2015b). Domestic cattle grazing along with intensifying human pressure is one of the main threats to the Shuklaphanta National Park (Bhattarai, 2012).