LOCAL NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Chitwan rhinos off to home far away from home

BY NAVIN SINGH KHADKA

Sukhibar, Chitwan, Nov. 20: In their bid to lessen the mounting pressure of the steadily increasing rhino population against this national park's carrying capacity, the authorities here Sunday began to trans-locate 10 of these one-horned endangered species to two other protected areas further to the west.

Tall and thick savanna grasses almost thwarted their effort to capture the first rhino yesterday as guests keenly kept on watching the live-show of its capture. The elephant-riding technicians combed the grassland for more than six hours and ended up locating only one bull rhino.

Other spooky ones that were sighted now here and now there, simply vanished thanks to the thick tall grasses providing secured and camouflaged hideout.

The bull would perhaps have dodged off too, had it not been for a glade between the Rue River Bank and the jungle. Once the around 15-20 year old rhino appeared in the open area, its seekers closed up and so did the visitors on elephants' back providing no way out for the confused animal.

The "U" formation left it no choice but to move straight forward without diverting until it reached a riverine forest -- an ideal place for the mission. Circled by more than 20 men-carrying elephants, this was where the bull with 34 centimetre long horn was darted and was carried away in a sledge to be finally trans-located to Shukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve.

The real field day taught the park authorities one lesson: This is not the right season for rhino trans-location.

"The tough time we had today shows that this is not the right season for trans-location," said Dr. Tirtha Man Maskey, Director General at the Department of Wild Life and National Park Conservation (DWNPC), who himself was in the darting team. "The tall grasses that we have during this time of the year was the reason of our access problem."

Of the 10 rhinos to be trans-located within this week, at least two females will be transferred to Royal Shukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve and the remaining will be carried off to Royal Bardiya National Park (RBNP).

"This was something we did without any foreign expert," said Dr. Shanta Raj Gyawali, a Rhino expert with King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation -- the organisation that technically assisted the DWNPC for the rhino trans-location. "We have gained expertise in this since we have been doing it for the last so many years," Gyawali, who had led the technical team to dart and load the rhino in a truck, said.

Home to around 550 rhinos, the Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) is increasingly becoming congested to the growing number of this rare species. It was the same jungle where poaching, human-settlement, and big-game hunting had pushed the number of rhinos to an all time low -- only 45 -- in the late 1960's.

Things began to improve after the government declared the above 1,100 square kilometres of this jungle as the first protected area -- among the present 16 conserved areas -- in the country. Under the armed army guards, the national park saw the rhino- population rise to 350 by 1987.

The prime attraction of this national park -- the one horned rhinos -- began to reach western and south-east Asian nations as gifts. By early 90's more than 20 rhinos were already gifted.

In yet another indication of the increasing number of rhinos in the RCNP, the park officials began to trans-locate these one-horned animals since 1986 when 13 of them were shifted to RBNP.

Five years later, 25 other rhinos were transported to Bardiya followed by four more in 1999. Earlier this year, 10 rhinos were loaded in trucks and were released in the Bardiya jungle where around 70 of them roam in the wilderness today.

Even as so many rhinos have either been gifted or trans-located all over the years, the rhino population continues to grow healthily in this national park. That has resulted into a number of complications. The acreage of the existing grassland -- the prime habitat of the rhinos -- is not able to keep up with the rapidly increasing number of these animals.

With the grassy area remaining the same, the rhinos fight among themselves to claim their share, sometimes even killing one another. With their number running out of capacity of the national park, these pachyderms have even begun to be menace for the human settlement in the park's buffer-zone. Increasing cases of crop-raiding have led to the poisoning of these rare species.

"When the number of animals reach more than the carrying capacity of the area they need to be trans-located," said Claude Martin, visiting Director General of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), who had darted the rhino yesterday. WWF had funded the trans-location billed at around 30,000 US Dollars.

So, how will the new home for the rhinos at RBNP be? It is going to be perfect, according to Shiva Raj Bhatta, Warden at RBNP. "We have accommodated rhinos before as well."

What needs waiting and watching is the development at the Shukla Phanta Wildlife reserve where only one lonesome bull rhino has been found so far. With two female rhinos very shortly joining it, the wildlife reserve in the far-west could turn into what RCNP is today, conservationists say. And, it's all the matter of time.

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