Rhino population climbs in Nepal thanks to collaboration, conservation and community · Global Voices
A greater one-horned rhino in the Chitwan National Park in south-central Nepal. Image by the author.
Nepal's 2021 rhino census, taken for the first time in six years, has put the figure at 752 individuals – an increase of 107, with 694 rhinos in Chitwan National Park, 38 in Bardia National Park, 17 in Shuklaphanta National Park and three in Parsa National Park.
Just a few decades ago, the country's rhino population had been drastically reduced as a result of poaching and habitat degradation. However, anti-poaching and conservation initiatives from the Nepalese government have helped increase numbers over the last six years.
<PERSON>, a conservation biologist from Nepal, announced the good news from the 2021 census on Twitter:
Rhino population in Nepal up by 107, national population is now 752. Major increase in Chitwan (89). Chitwan population is now 694. pic.twitter.com/mn4jnfzOHa
— <PERSON> (@1baburam) April 10, 2021
Translation: National Rhino Count 2021, Press Meet and Closing Program, 10 April 2021. Chitwan National Park, Sauraha, Chitwan
The last rhino count in 2015 found that there were 645 of the animals in the country, with 605 in Chitwan, 29 in Bardia, eight in Shuklaphanta and three in Parsa. Around 161 rhinos had been killed since the last census, of which six were poached.
The greater one-horned rhino population fell to just 100 individuals in Nepal in the 1960s thanks to indiscriminate poaching and habitat destruction, but with the establishment of Chitwan National Park in 1973 and the efforts of strict law enforcement, the population recovered, reaching a total of 612 by the year 2000.
The nationwide count that began on March 22, 2021 involved around 300 people – and 60 elephants. 447
The rhinos were counted by trained observers who recorded information on individual rhinos including sex, approximate age, individual characteristics such as horn size and shape, folds present on the neck and rump, along with body markings including cuts, scars and skin lobes. The cumbersome count had to be stopped twice, after a wild elephant attacked the team in Chitwan and a tiger killed an elephant driver in Bardia.
Around 60 elephants and 300 individuals were involved in the national rhino count 2021. Image by the author.
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The rhinos – 2-2.5 metric tonne giants, second only to elephants in size – once roamed the whole of the northern Indian sub-continent, ranging from the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins, from Pakistan in the west to the Indo-Burmese border in the east, including parts of Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. However, hunting for rhino horns and habitat degradation then saw them restricted to the southern plains of Nepal and north-eastern India.
Poaching driven by thriving black market
Rhinos have been poached throughout history, and to this day, for their most prized possession – their horns. They are made primarily of keratin, a protein also found in hair, scales, nails, claws and hooves and long-held to have healing properties in many Asian cultures.
The horns are used in traditional medicines across the continent, in Malaysia, Korea, India, Vietnam and China – with the latter two the most lucrative of these black markets. Chunks of the horns, or powders made from grinding them down, are used to treat ailments from fevers to gout, headaches to high blood pressure, snakebites, food poisoning and possession by bad spirits. Meanwhile carved rhino horn cups – once believed to be capable of detecting poison – and figurines are bought for display, and rhino horn jewellery is much in demand.
While Western media has touted its use as an aphrodisiac in Asian cultures, the Scientific American reports that this has always been minimal, and that in fact what usage does occur could even be driven by incorrect Western reports suggesting it is widespread. However, rhino horn is becoming increasingly popular for recreational use – in Vietnam, it is consumed as “a party drug, a health supplement and a hangover cure by newly wealthy elites,” as reported by the Guardian.
And it's not just the horn that is valued. 447