(Just an FYI, if you have a LA Public library card, you get free access to the NYT:
This transformation is visible across Nepal, thanks to a radical policy adopted by the government more than 40 years ago. Large swaths of national forest land were handed to local communities, and millions of volunteers like Mr. Karki were recruited to protect and renew their local forests, an effort that has earned praise from environmentalists around the world. But the success has been accompanied by new challenges — among them addressing the increase in potentially dangerous confrontations between people and wildlife.
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In Chitwan National Park in southeastern Nepal, which is surrounded by community forests, more than 8,000 armed troops guard a wildlife reserve with tigers, rhinoceros, crocodiles and leopards. They patrol round the clock, on foot, bicycle, boat and elephant.
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Sergeant Gurung, 36, who is armed with an M-16 rifle, said that on a recent patrol he was chased by a tiger. “I was so scared that I climbed a tree,” he said. “We are allowed to use our gun to protect ourselves, but I am here to protect the animals,” not shoot them.