Government counting rhinos from March 14

Chitwan: The government is preparing to undergo a census of one-horned rhinos, an endangered animal, from 14^th March and the act would begin from the Chitwan National Park. This is the first time that the government is initiating this task with its own financial resource.

Otherwise, donors used to dole out money for the government to conduct the census in the past. In Nepal, the counting of rhinos is done in every five years.

According to spokesperson of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Department Bishnu Prasad Shrestha, all preparations for the counting were completed adding that the technical officials will be trained a week before the rhino census.

Shrestha said that the Department has allocated Rs 11 million for the counting of rhinos.

As per the plan, the rhinos would be counted in Chitwan National Park and Parsa National Park in the first phase while the job would be carried out in Bardiya National Park and Shuklaphanta National Park in the next step. 

As many as 35 elephants and 60 technical persons would be mobilised in Chitwan National Park to count the rhinos in direct method. Beginning from Chitwan National Park, the officials have planned to accomplish the task in 20 days.

According to the rhino census conducted in 2015, the number of rhinos was 645 including 605 in Chitwan National Park alone. —