Post Report

KATHMANDU, Jan 6 – At least 19 rhinos have died, six of them due to poaching, in and around Royal Chitwan National Park in the last nine months time, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) said here today.

The figure is down from last year’s rhino death toll of 40. During the previous Nepali year 2057 BS, a total of 40 rhinos died, 12 of them due to poaching, according to information made available Saturday by Narendra Babu Pradhan, assistant ecologist at DNPWC.

“We have less incidents of poaching this year due to various anti-poaching measures we have taken,” Pradhan told The Kathmandu Post. DNPWC together with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) have set up various anti-poaching units in and around Chitwan and Bardia national parks, which are home to Royal Bengal tigers, one-horned Asiatic rhinos and dozens of other exotic wildlife species.

Of the six rhinos killed by poachers this year, four were shoot with bullets while the circumstances leading to the death of the other two is not yet known. Whereas most of the rhinos that died natural deaths, died as a result of fighting between themselves or tiger attack, Pradhan said.

Last year, a total of 28 rhinos died natural deaths, out of which five died after fighting with other rhinos, 18 due to an old age, two due to tiger attack and three in swamp and river-related accidents. Of the 12 rhinos killed by poachers, three were shot with bullets, two electrocuted, two poisoned while the reason leading to the death of other rhinos is not known.

Conservation officials attribute what they claim effective anti-poaching measures coupled with strict wildlife conservation laws have contributed in reducing the incidents of poaching.

According to them, in Bardia park in the mid-western Terai alone, forest guards have already killed over one dozen poachers since the official Nepali year 2052 BS began in mid-April.

Rhinos are killed for its horns, hooves, bones and hide that are used in making Traditional Chinese Medicines. Experts say the medicines are still very much popular amongst Chinese communities all over the old.

A census conducted in May 2000 put the population of the Asiatic one-horned rhino in Nepal at 612, up from 446-466 in 1994. Of these, 544 were in Chitwan, one of the world’s best rhino habitats included in UNESCO’s World Heritage Site list, while 67 others were in Bardia park, and one more in Royal Shukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve.

The total population of one-horned rhino, one of the nature’s oldest mammal species which was found in abundance from Pakistan to Myanmar at the turn of the last century, today stands at 2,618 worldwide. Their population in India stands at 1,868, while 138 more live in captivity in zoos.