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WILDLIFE |
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WILDLIFE |
Operation Rhino By successfully translocating 10 rhinos, Nepalese officials add one more chapter to their acclaimed conservation efforts By A CORRESPONDENT A conservation official, Dr. Shanta Raj Gyawali, was running for his life as the rhino workers had darted and thought was asleep started to chase them in the dense forests of Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) last month. Thanks to the presence of mind of a 'mahout,' the rhino was given a passage to escape and two conservation officials escaped unhurt. Dr. Gyawali and other conservation officials were full of joy while narrating to reporters in the capital last week their experience of successfully translocating 10 rhinos from RCNP to Royal Bardiya National Park and Royal Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in western Nepal. "The week-long operation (November 19-26) was carried out with a view to develop viable population of the rhinos in western Nepal and protect the endangered species from natural and other disasters," said Dr. Tirtha Man Maskey, director-general of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC). Another reason for the translocation was to reduce the threat of poaching in the Chitwan area. According to the DNPWC, more than 100 rhinos have died over the last 15 years out of which 26 were killed by poachers. The translocation program was jointly carried out by the DNPWC in cooperation with the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation and WWF Nepal Program. Identified as an endangered species, the number of one-horned rhinos in Nepal now has gone up to more than 600 from nearly 100 in the early fifties. Nepal houses nearly one-fourth of the rhino population in the world, the other habitat for the huge herbivore being India. "By conserving rhinos, we will be helping to conserve ourselves since animals and human beings are part of the same food chain," said Narayan Sharma, chief ecologist at the DNPWC. After colorful meeting of the WWF in Nepal, the successful translocation of the rhinos proved that Nepalese are committed to conservation work. "This also proved that Nepalese are capable to undertake a very delicate and difficult operation like translocating the rhinos," said Ukesh Raj Bhuju, coordinator of WWF Nepal Program. Some 150 officials and local people, two dozen elephants and heavy vehicles were employed to translocate the rhinos nearly 300 km west from their erstwhile habitat. |
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