A one-horned rhino was found with multiple bullet injuries at Chandrapur Municipality-2 in Rautahat district on Saturday. It is suspected that poachers shot at the pachyderm on Friday night.

District Forest Officer Rambabu Sah said the endangered animal was found at the Gaudatar Community Forest in critical condition. Its horn and hoofs, for which the animal is poached, are intact.

The local people, who saw the injured rhino while collecting mushroom in the forest, informed the police immediately.

According to security officials and conservationists, the rhino received seven or eight bullets in the head and elsewhere. It cannot walk. Conservationists said the rhino had come out of the Chitwan National Park (CNP) about 10 days ago.

Officials from the District Forest Office, Army personnel deployed in the Parsa Wildlife Reserve and an Armed Police Force team have been working to rescue the animal. A medical team has been called from the CNP, said Sah. Officials plan to tranquilise the animal for treatment.

This is the first case of a rhino being shot in the area in the past two years. The CNP celebrated zero rhino poaching years in 2014 and 2015 as not a single rhino was killed then.

Rhino electrocuted: CNP

The CNP said that an electric shock was the cause of the death of a rhino that was found dead at Bhanga of Narayani Municipality, Chitwan, two weeks ago. A postmortem report and a detailed investigation suggested that the endangered animal was electrocuted near a piece of land rented by Hotel Meghauli Serai. “The hotel staffers had left electrical appliances carelessly in the area that caused the rhino’s death,” said Kandel.