Wildlife technical team captured one-horned rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) in Chitwan National Park (CNP) and translocated it to Bardia National Park (BNP) (approximately 299 kilometres away) on Tuesday. 

The rhino will be realesed at BNP by Wednesdayt and will be followed by four more rhinos 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.

However, the government plan to relocate one-horned rhinos from Chitwan to Bardiya has met with fierce opposition from some conservationists.

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

• According to the 2015 census, there were 645 one-horned rhinos across Nepal—111 more than last count in 2011. It’s a huge number, as in 1975, only 600 were left in the world
• According to conservationists, 83 of the beasts have been shifted to Bardiya from Chitwan at different times since 1985
• The last count showed Bardiya National Park had only 29—a number which has made conservationists sceptical about the relocation plan

Meanwhile, the Bardiya National Park authority has responded to the conservationists who have raised an 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.

Meanwhile, the rhino population at the CNP is said to have increased significantly since 1985; the 2015 census put the number rhinos inside the CNP at 605, an increase of 99 from the previous census of 2011.

Many rhinos were killed by poachers during a decade-long insurgency, including those inside the CNP where 37 rhinos were killed in one year.

BNP Chief Conservation Officer Ramesh Kumar Thapa says they had only 24 rhinos four years ago and now they have 29 of them.

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.

Photos by: Kiran Panday