Protected Wildlife of Nepal: The Full Legal List (NPWC Act Schedules)

Nepal formally protects 39 species of wild animals under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (NPWC) Act, 2029 BS (1973 AD). These are grouped in the Act's protected-species schedule as 27 mammals, 9 birds and 3 reptiles. Killing, injuring, buying, selling or possessing any of these animals or their parts without a licence is a criminal offence, which is why this list matters far beyond biology classrooms.

The NPWC Act is the backbone of wildlife law in Nepal. It empowers the government to declare national parks, wildlife reserves, hunting reserves and conservation areas, and it is enforced on the ground by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), under the Ministry of Forests and Environment, with support from the Nepal Army and area authorities. The 'protected wildlife' schedule is a fixed legal list; a species does not have to be on the global IUCN Red List to be protected in Nepal, and vice versa.

This page is a directory of that legal list. Each entry below gives the English common name, the Nepali name, the scientific (Latin) name, an indicative IUCN Red List category, and the main protected areas where the species is found in Nepal. IUCN categories are global assessments and are updated periodically, so treat them as indicative of conservation urgency rather than legal status.

Mammals dominate Nepal's protected list, reflecting the country's spectacular range from Terai grasslands to the high Himalaya. The roll call includes global conservation icons such as the one-horned rhinoceros, Royal Bengal tiger, snow leopard and red panda, alongside lesser-known but equally protected species like the hispid hare, spotted linsang and four-horned antelope.

The 27 legally protected mammals, with Nepali name, scientific name and indicative IUCN status, are:

Nine bird species are on the protected schedule, spanning giant lowland forest birds, wetland cranes and storks, and prized Himalayan pheasants. Notably, the Himalayan monal (Danphe) is both Nepal's national bird and a legally protected species. The two florican species are among the most threatened birds in the world, clinging to a few Terai grasslands.

The 9 protected birds, with Nepali name, scientific name and indicative IUCN status, are:

Only three reptiles are legally protected, but they include one of the world's most endangered crocodilians. All three are lowland, largely aquatic or riverine species tied to the Terai's rivers, wetlands and forests, and all three are threatened by habitat loss, hunting and river degradation.

The 3 protected reptiles, with Nepali name, scientific name and indicative IUCN status, are:

Most protected animals survive because Nepal set aside a network of national parks, wildlife reserves, hunting reserves and conservation areas under the same NPWC Act. In the Terai lowlands, Chitwan National Park holds the country's largest populations of one-horned rhinoceros, gaur and gharial and shares tigers and wild elephants with Bardia, Shuklaphanta, Parsa and Banke national parks. Shuklaphanta protects the largest herd of swamp deer, while Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve is the last refuge of the wild water buffalo (arna).

In the mid-hills and Himalaya, red pandas range across Langtang, Makalu Barun, Sagarmatha, Rara and the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, while snow leopards patrol Shey Phoksundo, Annapurna, Kanchenjunga, Sagarmatha and Api Nampa. The trans-Himalayan deserts of Dolpa and Mustang shelter wild yak, Tibetan antelope (chiru) and Great Tibetan sheep (nayan). Cheer pheasants are a specialty of Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve, and the Himalayan monal is widespread in alpine protected areas.

A few protected species have very restricted or uncertain ranges. The pygmy hog, once found in Terai grasslands, is now considered likely locally extinct in Nepal and survives mainly in Assam, India. Sarus cranes depend on farmland wetlands around Lumbini rather than on parks, and the two floricans are confined to a handful of well-managed grasslands, making habitat protection outside strict park boundaries just as important as the parks themselves.

The protected list overlaps heavily with globally threatened wildlife. Species such as the Chinese pangolin, gharial, Bengal florican and lesser florican are Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, while the tiger, red panda, Asian elephant, wild water buffalo, Himalayan musk deer, hispid hare, Indian pangolin and Gangetic dolphin are Endangered. The snow leopard, one-horned rhinoceros, gaur, wild yak, clouded leopard, swamp deer, four-horned antelope, Great Hornbill, Sarus crane and cheer pheasant are Vulnerable.

Not every protected animal is globally threatened. The grey wolf, leopard cat, spotted linsang, Himalayan monal, blackbuck and yellow monitor lizard are ranked Least Concern worldwide, but they remain protected in Nepal because their national populations are small, localised or under pressure. Nepal also maintains its own National Red List series, compiled with the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) and IUCN, which can assign a higher national threat category than the global one.

Nepal's conservation record has strong bright spots. Sustained anti-poaching effort has driven the one-horned rhino population up from a few hundred to more than 750, and the country has repeatedly recorded years of zero rhino poaching. The wild tiger population has also roughly tripled since 2009 under the global tiger recovery goal, making Nepal one of the few range countries to have met its doubling target.

Because these 39 species are 'protected wildlife' under the NPWC Act, 2029, the ordinary rules that allow limited hunting under licence do not apply to them. Hunting, killing, injuring, capturing, or trading a protected animal or any of its parts, trophies or products is prohibited except under a specific government permit issued for research or management, which is rarely granted.

Penalties are among the strictest in South Asia. For killing or harming the most heavily protected animals, such as the rhinoceros, tiger, elephant, snow leopard and musk deer, the Act (as amended) prescribes a fine of NPR 500,000 to NPR 1,000,000 and imprisonment of 5 to 15 years, or both. Financing, organising, transporting or attempting the wildlife trade can attract the same range of punishment, and lesser but still serious penalties apply to other protected species. Exact figures depend on the offence and the latest amendment, so the DNPWC or the Act text should be consulted for a specific case.

Enforcement runs through the DNPWC, protected-area wardens, the Nepal Army units deployed inside parks, and buffer-zone community institutions. Nepal is also a party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which reinforces bans on cross-border trade in rhino horn, tiger parts, pangolin scales and other derivatives of these protected species.