Poachers Prey on Rhinos in Nepal's Royal Chitwan Park

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Poachers Prey on Rhinos in Nepal's Royal Chitwan Park

 

By Deepak Gajurel

 

KATHMANDU, Nepal, April 8, 2002 (ENS) -

Conservationists here are shocked to learn that 39

endangered one-horned rhinoceros have been found dead

during past 12 months in Royal Chitwan National Park.

The majority were killed by poachers, new information

released by the Department of National Parks and

Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) reveals.

 

According to DNPWC officials, 25 of the rhinos were

killed by poachers, while nine died of natural causes.

Two others were electrocuted and three were poisoned.

 

Of the dead, 15 rhinos were male and 13 were female,

while the gender of 11 of the dead animals could not

be identified, an official said. The missing horns and

other body parts of most of the dead rhinos suggests

that poachers are active in the national park.

 

Since the bodies of the rhinos electrocuted and

poisoned were found intact, officials suspect those

five rhinos were killed by the angry villagers living

in the park's buffer zone because rhinos frequently

destroy their corps.

 

Between 10 to 15 rhinos die natural deaths every year.

" Dozens of rhino deaths annually is something to be

worried about, " says Tribhuwan University zoologist

Narendra Khadka. " Effective measures have immediately

to be taken to stop poaching, " he urges.

 

One-horned rhinos are critically endangered around the

world. Slightly more than 1,800 one-horned rhinos

presently survive in the wild according to the World

Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

 

Nepali conservationists are worried about the growing

number of rhino deaths here in recent years. A total

of 42 rhinos died during 1999, while 23 rhinos were

lost during the period 1997 to 1998, DNPWC records

show.

 

Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Royal Chitwan

National Park in the Terai, the southern plains of the

Kingdom of Nepal, is home to 529 one-horned rhinos,

according to a rhino census in 1999. Their numbers are

up from a census conducted in 1994 which put the rhino

population in the park at 466.

 

According to information made available by the DNPWC,

there are 63 rhinos in Royal Bardia National Park in

the western Nepal, and four in Royal Shukla Phanta

Wildlife Reserve in the far western part of the

country.

 

Covering an area of 1,000 square kilometers, Royal

Chitwan National Park was established in 1973, with

fewer than 80 rhinos. A government policy of

substantial financial investment and strict

conservation strategy has resulted in the increased

rhino population.

 

Many experts say that rising rhino population can not

be sustained in the limited area of Chitwan National

Park, and the rhino habitat there is shrinking.

 

Though the Nepali government has conducted a rhino

census twice in last eight years, no scientific study

has been carried out on the sustainability of rhinos

in terms of territory and the number of animals in

Chitwan. But the increasing occurrences of rhinos

straying outside the park and the abundant number of

them everywhere in the park suggests overcrowding.

 

To keep the park from getting overcrowded with rhinos,

officials have translocated 63 rhinos to Royal Bardia

National park in the western Terai in the past few

years.

 

The parks epartment is translocating more animals to

Bardia National Park this year. " We will stop adding

rhinos in Bardia once the number of rhinos there

reaches 100, a DNPWC official said.

 

© Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All Rights

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