Home chitwan, endangered species, nepal, rhino Endangered Rhino count has begun in Nepal..

Endangered Rhino count has begun in Nepal..

Posted by Pbc chitwan, endangered species, nepal, rhino 00:19

Nepal launched a count of the endangered one-horned rhinos. The census started Tuesday at the Chitwan National Park, some 175 kilometres south of Kathmandu, and was due to last three weeks. The latest count of the rhinos conducted in 2008 put the number of the one-horned rhinos in the country at 435, out of which 408 are in the Chitwan National Park. More than 25 rhinos were reported dead in 2008-10. Nearly 100 were killed in 2001-02, when the Maoist insurgency was at its peak.

Fifty elephants are being used to take a team of 170 people through the forests to count the rhinos. 'New technologies like global positioning system and camera trapping will be used for the study,' said Shanta Raj Jnawali of the National Trust for Nature Conservation. 'The count will focus on the status of male and female rhinos separately, along with the condition of baby rhinos and impact of human encroachment on the rhino habitat.' Besides conducting the rhino count, the team will also study the status of the natural habitat and the invasion of the forest by the parasitic weed micania micarantha, which has been destroying the rhinos' habitat.

Rampant poaching has reduced the number of the one-horned rhino, a rare species found in forests in northern India and Nepal. The total population of the animal in the world is around 3,000.