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Authorities in Nepal are set to stop the first national census in six years of the country’s rhino population after touting a won battle against wildlife poachers in the Himalayan foothills.
The count of one-horned rhinos will begin on March 22 in state-run animal parks in the lowlands of the Himalayan country bordering India.
“The count will continue for three weeks,” Haribhadra Acharya, a spokesperson for Nepal’s National Park and Wildlife Conservation Ministry, told the Kathmandu Post.
“Before going to the field for the census, there will be training and orientation for those involved in the enumeration,” Acharya added.
The decision on the much delayed count was taken on Sunday by a group of experts, who hoped to complete the project in Nepal’s four vast parks by April 11.
Staggered workforce
Rangers will first launch the exercise in Chitwan National Park, which is home to 605 of Nepal’s 645 rhinos, according to the latest tally in 2015.
The Chitwan, covering an area of 950 square kilometers, was once a popular hunting ground for Nepal’s ruling class.
The remaining animals would be counted in the three remaining sanctuaries in a phased national exercise.
The delay in the census raises doubts
Previous attempts to check rhino numbers have failed to take off largely due to a lack of resources. Last year, the census had to be suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We really don’t know how many rhinos are there because we have at least four rhinos killed by poachers in Chitwan last year,” an official said over the phone.
In addition to poaching by ivory traffickers, a large number of animals are also said to have perished from natural causes, including 43 deaths between 2018 and 2019 in the Nepalese nature.
One estimate puts the number of rhino deaths at over 140 since 2016.
Fallout from Covid-19
The former Himalayan kingdom also saw a peak in poaching after the application of health restrictions in March last year.
Three endangered crocodiles were killed in Chitwan last year and an elephant was found dead in another wildlife park amid warnings poaching could increase due to desperation among people over the pandemic and the home workers.
Three days after the lockdown, a poacher died and a ranger was injured in a deadly shootout between soldiers and wildlife traffickers in popular Parsa National Park in central Nepal, neighboring Nepal. India.
Similar clashes were also reported around other state-protected wildlife parks, Nepalese media reported without giving further details.
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