Rise in rhino population

Increased security and working closely with the local community has led to a significant rise in Nepal’s rhinoceros population.

Maheswor Dhakal, an ecologist with Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, said a survey this month showed that the country’s rhino population was 534 compared with 435 in 2008, when the last count was done.

Mr Dhakal said today that the number of rhinos had decreased during the decade of fighting between government troops and Maoists rebels which ended in 2006.

During the conflict, soldiers were pulled out of conservation duty, leaving the forest unguarded.

Since the end of the fighting, soldiers have returned to the forests to keep poachers out, and the government has introduced programmes involving local villagers.

“Working closely with the community to set up buffer zones has helped in our conservation,” Mr Dhakal said, adding that the result has been an increase in rhino births and a decrease in killings. Conservationists riding elephants spent three weeks this month counting the one-horned rhinos in the forests of Chitwan in southern Nepal and Bardia in the south-west.

The one-horned rhinos, also called Indian rhinos, are an endangered species. They are found in the southern plain forests of Nepal and in India.

Maoist rebels seeking to end Nepal’s monarchy fought government troops from 1996 to 2006, when they gave up their armed revolt to join a peace process. More than 13,000 people were killed in the conflict.