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Nepal National Parks Chitwan |
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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.
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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. |
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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.
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April
2005: Nepal's one-horned rhino population declines |
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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. |
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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.
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Rhinos |
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