Endangered rhinos vanish from game reserve

DOZENS of endangered great one-horned rhino-ceroses have gone missing from a nature reserve in south-west Nepal over the past few years, a wildlife official said yesterday.

Authorities introduced 72 rhinos, also known as Indian rhinos, in the Babai Valley, 320km south-west of Kathmandu, as part of a conservation drive that started in 1984.

“We have records showing 23 rhinos died due to poaching or other causes. The rest are missing,” Laxmi Prasad Manandhar, a senior official at the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation, said.

He ruled out the possibility of all the 49 missing rhinos falling prey to poachers.

“If poachers had killed them they would have left behind the bodies after taking away the horn,” he said, adding that just one rhino skeleton had been found during an extensive search in June.

“Where did they go? I have no answer. It is a mystery,” Mr Manandhar said.

The rhinos were moved to Babai Valley from Chitwan National Park on Nepal’s southern plains under a conservation scheme supported by the global conservation group WWF.

In December, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the government to step up security at Chitwan — the Himalayan nation’s biggest rhino reserve — after local media reported at least 10 animals had been killed since July.

Officials say at least 12 rhinos have died in the past six months in Chitwan where their population dropped to 372 in 2005 from 544 in 2000.

Their numbers fell mainly due to poaching for horns which are believed to have aphrodisiac qualities and are in great demand in China.