Alarm Bells Ringing
The one-horned rhinos face fresh assault to their survival as poaching increases
By SANJAYA DHAKAL
In July this year, poachers killed three rhinos in the forest of Chitwan National Park within a week. They also injured another rhino. While two female rhinos were killed in Chitwan, a male rhino was killed in Nawalparasi. The poachers managed to take away the horn of one rhino.
Last week in December poachers killed another rhino. Poachers critically injured a rhino in Bhimbali community forest in Padampur of eastern Chitwan. The rhino succumbed to its bullet injuries in leg and neck.
Reports say that in the past two years alone, 37 one-horned rhinos have been killed by the poachers while ten died of natural causes during the same period. In the last six months alone, ten rhinos have been killed by poachers
The latest rhino census conducted two years ago showed there were 372 rhinos in Chitwan. These apart there are just around three dozen rhinos in Bardiya National Park .
As the population of one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros Unicornis) is fast dwindling, the increase in the incidents of poaching has started to ring alarm bells.
On December 3, the apex court bench comprising judges Tapa Bahadur Magar and Pawan Kumar Ojha had ordered the government to save rhinos. The government had reduced number of check posts within the park from 36 to 8 due to growing insecurity caused by Maoist insurgency. The apex court has asked the government to increase the number of check posts to the same level if possible.
Perhaps in response to the apex court order, the Department for National Parks and Wildlife Reserve has added four security posts inside Chitwan National Park . Three posts in Amrite, Kujauli and Botesimara have been replaced – they had been abandoned due to conflict in the past. Another post in Narayani Tapu has also been set up. Chief of the department Shyam Bajimaya also visited the national park and assured that the government has decided to increase the security posts in the coming days.
In fact, since the intensification of violence, the rhino poaching, too, have increased. As security forces abandoned their forest posts to fight against Maoist rebels, it was open season for poachers. In the year 2002, as many as 43 rhinos were killed - up from 18 and 13 in the years 2001 and 2000 respectively. Likewise, the number of rhinos killed in subsequent years have gradually increased.
Poaching has increased in Nepal whenever there is political instability. As the country is currently busy in transition, poachers seem to have a field day.
There are established networks of poachers that take advantage of the locals who are lured by money to kill rhinos and extract their horns and hooves. The rhino horn fetches a high price in the East Asian market. Apart from its reputation as an aphrodisiac accessory, it is high on the list of makers of traditional Chinese medicine and is considered to have various curative properties.
The rise in poaching is a serious blow to Nepal 's success in the conservation of its endangered species. Nepal was home to more than 1,000 rhinos before 1950 when the Kingdom was closed to the outside world. But deforestation, poaching and shrinking of the rhino habitat in the southern plains because of migration of people eroded that number. The rhino population fell to 400 in 1957 and to a shockingly low 100 in 1966.
It was at this juncture when the rhinos were on the verge of extinction that the Nepalese government created the national park, and mobilized the army for the park's protection. Gradually, the rhino population began to swell and their number has been on the rise ever since.
But in recent years their numbers have started to fall. While the census taken in 2000 stated there were 612 rhinos in two national parks in Chitwan and Bardiya with the park in Chitwan alone home to 544 rhinos - up 104 since 1994, the latest census conducted two years ago has stated that only 372 rhinos remain in Chitwan. The one-horned rhinoceros are found only in Nepal and India . The two countries are home to around 2,000 rhinos.
