With the increase in number of one-horned rhinos inside the Chitwan National Park (CNP)—thanks to  the conservation efforts of the park authority, the government started moving some of the rhinos to other protected areas of the country, namely the Bardiya National Park (BNP) and the Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve (SWR), to protect their population from last year.

The latest rhino translocation process started in CNP on Monday, in which five rhinos—one male and four females—are being moved to a new habitat inside the SWR.

Mounted on 30 elephants, a team of conservationists, technicians and mahouts combed through Shukhbar area inside the CNP searching for suitable rhinos. An adult male rhino was located near the Rapti river. The team fired a dart to render the pachyderm unconscious, placed it in a special cage and shipped it to the SWR.

Although the plan was to translocate two rhinos on Monday, the team could only capture one.

Ram Chandra Kandel, the chief conservation officer at the CNP, said the translocation process could take at least a week to complete.

The government had decided to shift 30 rhinos from the CNP to the BNP and the SWR in October 2014.

As part of the decision, five rhinos were translocated to the BNP last year.