Conservationists recently discovered the biggest mass grave so far of the endangered one-horned rhino at their new home in Royal Bardia National Park.

Four carcasses were found in the protected forest after they were translocated there from the Royal Chitwan National Park. Three dead rhinos were discovered in Chitwan two years ago.

“One was male. We could not determine the sex of three others as their bodies were badly decomposed. They were killed definitely by poachers about three weeks ago judging from the state of the decomposed bodies,” spokesman of the Ministry of Soil Conservation Dr. Tirtha Man Maskey said.

The bodies were found as Crown Prince Paras, who is also Chairman of the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC), Monday launched the translocation of 10 more rhinos from their original and only habitat in Chitwan to Bardia.

Bardia now had a rhino population of 73 rhinos built up in 11 years of tireless effort appreciated by donors; four have also been translocated nearby to the Royal Sukhlaphanta National Park.

Poachers gun down rhinos for the horn that fetches a big price in the international market, particularly China, for its supposedly aphrodisiac quality.