By Basanta Parajuli
Narayangadh, Sept. 15: Security at Chitwan National Park (CNP) has been tightened after a one-horned rhino was found dead last week in a suspected case of poaching.
Chief Conservation Officer Annath Baral said that the park administration had begun a ‘sweep operation’ to tighten security in the area after the incident.
Baral further informed that the army and other security agencies had been mobilised for the operation. “The sweep operation will include everything from patrolling the park area to raiding suspicious places,” he added.
The suspected poaching happened after a gap of four years.
"Poachers might have become active during the lockdown as regular patrol activities had been reduced. But now we have immediately ramped up security and are operating under the assumption that the rhino was poached,” Baral said.
Former Chief Conservation Officer Ram Preet Yadav agreed with Baral. "The pandemic has made it difficult for security personnel to monitor the park and poachers are seemingly taking advantage of the situation," he said.
Meanwhile, 23 people who were in jail for poaching rhinos were released from Bharatpur Jail last April.
Yadav, who has been active in the conservation of tigers and rhinos for a long time, said that the park should now engage in research and prepare additional strategies to save the rare one-horned animals.
"As long as there are weaknesses in the security system, poaching will keep growing," Yadav said.
In the meantime, park officials have begun conducting regular patrols on foot as well as on vehicles (two-wheelers and four-wheelers), elephants and boats. Dogs and drones are also being used to monitor rhinos in the difficult areas of the national park.
In the past, smugglers used to kill up to 38 rhinos a year. Nepal recorded the first case of rhino poaching in 1995. However, since 2016 no rhino had died of illegal hunting, although natural deaths did occur.
In the current fiscal year, four rhinos, including the one last week, have died in CNP so far. They died of natural causes or while fighting except the latest one.
According to the 2015 census, there are 645 rhinos in Nepal. Of those, 605 rhinos are found in CNP alone.