At least 14 rhinos have died in the Chitwan National Park (CNP) and the forest area until February 9 of the current fiscal year, 2022/23, said the CNP. The FY in Nepal usually begins in mid-July. Of them, 12 died in the CNP and two in the forest area. Poachers killed three of them (two in the CNP and one in the forest area), said the CNP information officer Ganesh Prasad Tiwari. One of the two killed in the CNP was found with its horn removed, and another was a calf.

According to the 2021 census, there are 752 rhinos in all over Nepal with 694 in the CNP alone. Meanwhile, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation has come up with a plan to control increasing poaching of rhinos. It has launched investigations into rhino poaching by forming a probe team under the leadership of its Deputy Director General.

Similarly, the CNP has also tightened security measures to curb the killing of rhinos. Forty one rhinos died in the CNP and the forest area in the previous FY, 2021/22, said Tiwari. Two of them were killed by poachers, he said, adding that of them, 37 were found dead in the CNP and the rest four in the forest area.