Nepal nature
Nature News
Chitwan National Park
previous page
end
Grafik Nepal National Parks Chitwan
Chitwan: The no-horned Asiatic rhinoceros August 2005
Chitwan: Rhino killed June 2005
Chitwan: Nepal's one-horned rhino population declines April 2005
Chitwan
National Parks Map Nature News Gharials
Chitwan Tour Chitwan Information Grafik
The no-horned Asiatic rhinoceros

August 2005

Poaching depletes Chitwan's rhinos ...

Park authorities conducting a post-mortem on a rhino killed by poachers last month in Chitwan.

On 20 July, a decomposing carcass of a rhino was discovered near Bhalu Tappu in Chitwan National Park. It was just the latest in a slaughter that has seen the decimation of one-fourth of the park's rhino population in the past five years.

Chitwan is one of the world's most successful conservation efforts. It has saved the Royal Bengal Tiger from the brink of extinction, restored the Asiatic one-horned rhino to a healthy population and secured the rich bio-diversity of this inner-tarai rainforest. Rhino conservation was so successful that the park has relocated 24 rhinos to Bardiya in the past 10 years. A lot of that success was because the park was guarded by the Royal Nepali Army but with the army's mobility hampered by an insurgency, poachers have moved in.

top

June 2005: Rhino killed
Rhino
At a time when the population of rhinos is declining in Nepal, poachers have killed another rhino in the Chitwan National Park, Chitwan. It is the fourth incident of rhino killing in the park in the last two months. Poachers have already killed 13 rhinos since the completion of the recent Rhino Census in mid-April 2005, reports said.
According to this year's census, the population of rhinos in Nepal stood at 440 with 372 rhinos in Chitwan. The previous census, conducted five years back, had put the total number of rhinos in the country at 544.

Meanwhile, wildlife experts have demanded that the government immediately implement effective measures to stop wildlife poaching and find out reasons for the sharp decline in the number of rare wildlife, including rhinos, in the country.

top

April 2005: Nepal's one-horned rhino population declines
Rhino
The number of endangered one-horned rhinoceros in Nepal has declined in recent years, due mainly to poaching, wildlife authorities say.

The latest count of the population has shown that rhino numbers have dropped to fewer than 400 from nearly 600 animals in three parks in 2000. Poaching has been blamed largely on inadequate security caused by the long-running Maoist insurgency.

Nepal is home to a quarter of South Asia's rhino population. In the last official count of the Nepal's one-horned rhinos, the authorities had claimed success in the conservation of what is called the world's most endangered species

The 2000 count showed that there were more than 500 rhinos in the country's largest national park, Chitwan, and about 100 in two other smaller parks - a 25% rise in the population over previous years. Five years later, the rhino population had dropped by nearly a quarter, authorities said.

Trading in the horn of the rhino is internationally banned, but experts say that poachers are encouraged by the big profit margin. The government was forced to cut down the number of security posts established to counter the poachers in Chitwan national park due to fears of attack by the rebels.

Links
External links
SOS Rhino WWF More on Rhinos
IRF Rhino Worldlife Rhinos
Rhinos
previous page