In eight months of the current fiscal year, 20 rhinos have been found dead. Those rhinos were found dead in Chitwan National Park and its surrounding areas.
According to Avinash Thapa Magar, information officer of the park, the rhinos found dead in the current fiscal year died of natural causes. They were attacked by tigers and crocodiles, got tangled up with each other, got sick, got stuck in swamps and died of old age.
He informed that no rhinoceros died due to poaching in this financial year. 21 rhinos died in the last financial year. He said that 18 of the dead rhinos were due to natural causes, while two were poached and the reason for one was unknown.
According to Magar, 22 rhinoceros died in Chitwan National Park in the fiscal year 2079/80. Out of which 20 were killed by time, one by electric current and one by poachers.
After many rhinos died due to natural causes, the Ministry of Forests and Environment formed a committee to investigate the cause of death. In recent years, the death rate of rhinos due to natural causes has been decreasing. In the year 2075/76, only 43 rhinos died due to natural causes. In the following years, the death rate due to natural causes has been decreasing.
According to the calculation of 2021, the number of rhinos in Nepal is 752. Chitwan National Park has the highest number of one-horned rhinos at 694. There are 38 rhinos in Bardia, 18 in Shuklaphanta and three in Parsa. Although there is a program for rhino counting in the current financial year, it has been postponed.
