A five-member team from the China’s Ministry of Forestry arrived at the Chitwan National Park (CNP) on Thursday to study the habitat, feeding, breeding and management of endangered one-horned rhino. 

The team led by the assistant minister of State for Forestry Administration has started inspection of the animal from boats and elephant safari. Deputy Director General of the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) Gopal Prasad Bhattarai along with wildlife experts has facilitated the Chinese team. 

Ramchandra Kandel, chief conservation officer at the CNP, said the Chinese team arrived at the CNP to inspect the habitat and breeding for rhino after the then KP Oli-led government decided to gift two pairs of rhinos to China on June 2016. 

A team of wildlife experts and the representatives of the DNPWC will study the rhino habitat in China after the visiting team returns from Nepal. The CNP is home to 605 rhinos , according to the rhino census of 2015. The country has not gifted rhinos to any country since 2008.