The one horned rhino transported from Chitwan National Park (CNP) has been released at Chepang in Babai valley, Bardiya National Park (BNP).

The 12-year old male rhino was freed from the wooden cage in presence of Forest Minister Agni Prasad Sapkota at 11am on Wednesday.

The locals of the area are excited about the transfer of the rhinos. The locals said that they were determined to keep the rhinos safe.

Four more rhinos will be shifted to BNP from CNP on March 4. As per a decision of the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation taken last year, the authorities are planning to move 30 one-horned rhinos from the CNP to the BNP in next three years. As part of the plan, five rhinos—two male and three female—are set to be taken to the BNP on Tuesday.

Chief Conservation Officer of Chitwan National Park, Ramchandra Kandel, had earlier said that the rhinos to be taken from lower belt of Sukhibhar in Kasara area would be released in Babai valley in Bardiya. The total cost for the transfer of the rhinos is estimated Rs 8.3 million. He added that plans are afoot to relocate altogether 25 rhinos within three years.

Conservationists affiliated to various organisations, who are protesting against the plan to relocate rhinos from CNP to BNP, submitted a memorandum to Chitwan Chief District Officer Binod Prakash Singh on Monday, urging him to stop the entire process.

The protesting conservationists argued that the BNP is “not a safe place” for rhino conservation. They claimed that 83 rhinos have been shifted to Bardiya from Chitwan at different times since 1985, but last year’s census showed that there were only 29 pachyderms in the BNP.

“Bardiya is not a safe place for rhinos. The rhino population has not gone up in Bardiya, while Chitwan has seen significant rise in number of pachyderms,” said Basu Bidari, former chairman of Nature Guide Association.

Meanwhile, the Bardiya National Park authority has responded to the conservationists who have raised uproar over the government’s decision to relocate 30 one-horned rhinos from the Chitwan National Park to the BNP.

BNP officials on Tuesday said the claim that BNP is “unsafe” for rhinos was untrue because there has not been a single rhino poaching incident since 2007.

Going by the numbers, 54 rhinos are unaccounted for, and the BNP has not answered how many of them were killed or died of natural causes.

Around the turn of the 20th century, the number of greater one-horned rhinos had been reduced to only a few hundred animals due to habitat loss and poaching, but wild populations are now better protected and being managed to repopulate areas in which the species had previously been eradicated.