Rhino census halted due to funding shortage

CHITWAN, MARCH 14: The rhino census conducted every five years has been suspended this year due to shortage of funds. Director General of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Ram Chandra Kandel, said that the census was being carried out with the help of donors, but it had to be suspended this year due to shortage of funds.

The government has not made any budgetary provision to keep regular records of rhinos. Although the rhino census could not be carried out this year, the status of rhinos would be known through the park's posts on the basis of the signal of individual rhinos, he said. Kandel added that the census would be conducted as far as possible by mobilizing all the human resources of the Park.

He said, "Although the exact number might not be possible to ascertain as per the census, the status of the rhinos is determined on the basis of the manual observation of each rhino in a subtle way.” The Department had been conducting rhino census in collaboration with various donor agencies partnering with the Park. One-horned rhinos are found in Chitwan, Parsa, Bardiya and Shukla Phanta National Parks.

According to the latest census, Chitwan has the highest number of the one-horned rhino. A total of 752 rhinos were counted across the country in this census. There were 694 one-horned rhinos in Chitwan National Park, followed by 38 in Bardiya National Park, 18 in Shukla Phanta National Park and three in Parsa at that time.

According to the Department, there were 800 rhinos in 1950, four hundred in 1955, three hundred in 1960, one hundred in 1965, one hundred and eight in 1970, one hundred and forty-seven in 1975, three hundred and ten in 1980 and 1985, three hundred and fifty-eight in 1990 and 466 in 1995. Similarly, there were 612 rhinos in Nepal in 2000, 409 in 2005, 435 in 2010 and 645 in 2015. Earlier, a rhino census was conducted in 2021.