{"id":20114501,"date":"2023-04-05T10:01:48","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T04:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=114501"},"modified":"2023-04-19T14:24:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T08:54:16","slug":"as-nepal-rhino-population-increases-are-threats-being-overlooked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/as-nepal-rhino-population-increases-are-threats-being-overlooked\/","title":{"rendered":"As Nepal\u2019s rhino population increases, are threats being overlooked?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On 20 January 2023, two rhinos were found dead near the bank of the Narayani River in Nepal\u2019s Chitwan National Park. According to postmortems conducted by park officials, the 14-year-old female rhino and 4-year-old male calf had been killed by electrocution. The horn of the female rhino was missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ganesh Prasad Tiwari, a spokesperson for Chitwan National Park, says the case is being treated as poaching and is under investigation. He tells The Third Pole that poachers may have fixed a wire across the rhinos\u2019 regular movement routes, hooked up to the power supply from a nearby temple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair were among a total of 14 rhinos that have been found dead in Chitwan National Park and its surrounding buffer zones since the start of the 2022-23 fiscal year (July 2022 to July 2023), according to data provided to The Third Pole by Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC). Although this total is lower than in previous years, the last decade overall has seen an upward trend in the number rhinos dying in Chitwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts tell The Third Pole that in many cases, human activity may be to blame, from the impacts of infrastructure projects, invasive species, and perhaps most worrying, a resurgence of poaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhino poaching re-emerges in Nepal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to Nepal\u2019s latest rhino census, the country\u2019s population of one-horned rhinos \u2013 a globally vulnerable<\/a> species that survives only in the floodplains of lowland Nepal and northeast India \u2013 has been steadily on the rise for the past two decades. The 2021 census put the national population at 752<\/a>, compared to 409 in 2005. Over 90% live in Chitwan National Park, with smaller populations in Bardia, Shuklaphanta and Parsa National Parks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Map<\/div>
Nepal’s national parks with populations of one-horned rhinos \u2022 Map: The Third Pole<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Chitwan\u2019s rhino population has had a chequered history. Deforestation and poaching caused the population to fall<\/a> from thousands to around 100 in the late 1960s. The population rebounded after the establishment of the national park and successful conservation efforts, but fell once again in the early 2000s during a wave of poaching coinciding with a period of armed conflict and political instability in Nepal. 94 rhinos<\/a> were poached in Chitwan National Park between 2000 and 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n