Kathmandu, December 3
After failing to hold the rhino census as planned in early 2020, the government of Nepal is planning to count one-horned rhinoceros in various national parks early next year.
Hari Bhadra Acharya, the information officer at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, says the count will be concluded within this winter season.
The government had failed in its plan to conduct the count earlier this year due to budget constraints and the Covid-19 crisis.
Four national parks of Nepal–Chitwan, Parsa, Bardiya, and Shuklaphanta–house rhinos. Of them, Chitwan is the biggest home.
The Chitwan National Park had maintained zero poachings for three and a half years until September this year when a rhino was found killed. Likewise, the number of rhinos dying natural deaths is also said to be increasing.
There were 645 rhinos in Nepal in 2015. Of them, more than 600 were in Chitwan.
