37 rhinoceros died in Chitwan National Park last financial year. Two of them were dead because of poachers and the rest died of natural causes.
Rhinoceros have died due to old age, illness, tiger attack, drowning in swamps, mudslides and floods. Ganesh Prasad Tiwari, the information officer of the park, informed that the hoof of one of the two who died from poaching was safe. It is suspected that the local residents killed the rhinoceros by electrocuting it. Another one has been confirmed dead by poachers.
He said that there were 18 males, 14 females and five unidentified rhinos among the dead. According to the statistics of the park, the dead rhinos ranged in age from one month to 35 years. These rhinos are dead in the national park and in the central area.
It is said that due to the lack of habitat and lack of grassland, there is also a lack of food, so when there are many rhinos in one place, they fight with each other. Spread over 932 square meters, Chitwan National Park has an area of 10,497 hectares of grassland. Grassland has been managed in 425 places within that area. Recently, these grasslands have been destroyed.
Grassland, which was up to 20 percent when the park was established, has now declined to less than 10 percent. According to the 2021 rhino census, 752 rhinos have been recorded in Nepal. 694 of these are in Chitwan. 605 rhinos were found in 2015 and 503 in 2011. After a lot of rhinoceros died due to natural causes, the National Parks and Conservation Department sent a team to conduct a study.
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