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Murky Side Of Successful Rhino Conservation In Nepal

By Subas Dhakal

One horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) is the charismatic flagship species of Nepal. It also serves as an ambassador of healthy ecosystems within Terai. Weighing more than 2000 kilos, rhino is the second largest pachyderms of Nepal. These prehistoric animals have been dwelling in the forests and swamps of this region for millions of years. Rhino's body parts are still used in several Hindu religious rituals and even its urine is considered to be an effective remedy for several diseases. Despite such aesthetic values blended within the local culture, rhino has been passing through quite a bit of melancholy days in its struggle for existence. Until the late 50's, it was believed that terai region contained a good population of rhinos. Once malaria was considered as eradicated, forest of terai were haphazardly cleared to accommodate heavy influx of migrants. That resulted in sharp decline of rhino population due to excessive poaching and significant habitat destruction. By the late 1960's, rhino population dropped to below 100. Realizing the urgency of the situation, HMG was quick to undertake proactive conservation initiatives in the early 1970's. National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (NPWC) Act of 1973 enabled HMG to create protected areas and first national park was established in Chitwan. Thanks to the timely efforts, rhino population revived with great success in Chitwan. Last official rhino count conducted in 2000, recorded 612 rhinos in Nepal of which 544 were recorded in Chitwan alone.

Conservation successes opened up possibilities of translocating rhinos to Bardia as early as 1984. Today, Bardia harbors an estimated population of 100 rhinos. Because of translocation, rhinos will be safe in at least one of these two geographically separate locations even if some natural or artificial misfortune hits either of the parks. However, success of conservation of rhino does come with a pinch of salt. Well-organized network of poachers appeared to have benefited the most out of successful rhino conservation and translocation endeavors. Poaching incidents of rhino have significantly increased over the past few years. Recent media news indicates that at least 46 rhinos have been killed within 11 months of current fiscal year alone. Within past four years or so, officially reported number of rhino deaths due to the natural and poaching causes has surpassed 150. In normal circumstances, natural deaths occur due to the age factor or intra species fighting for mating rights. Natural disaster such as flood has also caused deaths of few rhinos in Chitwan. Official data indicates that natural deaths and poaching incidents have sharply risen since 1998 in a similar trend in Chitwan. Data reveals that at least 75 rhinos died naturally while at least 68 rhinos were poached between 1998 and 2002. Interestingly, surge in number of natural deaths have so far been provided with no legible explanations. That is why there is a reason to believe that recent reports by officials pointing out the surge in natural deaths of rhinos might have been cover-ups of the poaching incidents. Looking at the past trends, disbelief in the sharp rise in the number of natural deaths is certainly a genuine one.

Then what went wrong? Well, several renowned non-governmental agencies are down-pouring tremendous amount of fund to assist government authorities for anti poaching operations. Several international scale projects (completed and ongoing) have been using 'rhino' to lure funding from international donor agencies. However, ever-increasing poaching incidents have shown that all such expenditures have been in vain. It is further interesting to note that such adverse situation have completely failed to persuade government and non-government agencies to review the failure of the past and build consensus on new strategy of anti poaching. Instead, officials seem to have been engaged in rather egoistic head butting. For instance, poaching of four rhinos in Bardia overshadowed the news of rhino translocation 2003 only a few months ago. Timing of the news was rather deliberate and smelled favorite Nepali pastime of 'leg pulling game'. Itís true that while some of the officials are busy in unethical exercise of vulgar display of supremacy, they have completely lost the grip to protect what they have been able to conserve for so long. There is no doubt that the main problem is the high demand of rhino's horn and other body parts, which makes poaching quite lucrative if gone undetected. Worldwide networking of poachers and illegal traders have reportedly been stockpiling horn of rhino in far eastern countries in a hope that rhino will be extinct soon from the face of the earth. For them, extinction means zero supply and sky rocketed demand increasing the price by many folds.

Such demand in international market and weak anti poaching measures must have contributed towards increased poaching cases in Nepal. However, 'feeble law and enforcement' together with 'political alliance' set poachers free with relative ease. Problem of such magnitude along with unwillingness of concerned authorities to coordinate with other line agencies without the financial benefit have been plaguing the anti poaching operations to keep repeated offenders off the limits of rhino's habitat. Therefore, implementation of long-term rhino conservation strategy under the competent leadership of nationally recognized veteran of the field is more eminent now than ever before. There is no doubt that anti poaching measures in Nepal has failed for five consecutive years now. However, none of the officials has been held accountable for it. How can the same old mechanism and procedure utilize enormous source of funds and manpower without any accountability? If same strategy has been failing for the past five years, then isn't it time for concerned authority to mutate strategy? Future of rhino and any other wildlife in Nepal is uncertain unless authorities make the most of nationally available experts and veteran managers. Vision of conservation attempts with personal ego and biases and strategy based on such vision can only be futile. We have talked enough on success of rhino conservation in Nepal, its time to act on protecting them!

(The author is conservation program manager at the Wildlife and Environment, Nepal. He can be contacted at < "mailto:conservationeducation@rediffmail.com" conservationeducation@rediffmail.com)