Kathmandu, April 3
The much-awaited census of the one-horned rhino population in Nepal remains shrouded in uncertainty.
Preparations for the census, which was supposed to be carried out in April, is yet to begin. “We are still talking to donor agencies,” says Man Bahadur Khadka, Director-General of the Department of Wild Life and National Parks. He says that the department is yet to finalise the details of the census.
According to conservationists, the ‘window period’ for conducting the census is between April and May when the heat in the Terai is still bearable. “After that, the elephants used by enumerators cannot bear the heat,” says Nepal Trust for Nature Conservation’s Naresh Subedi.
He says that during the previous census, work had already started in the first week of April.
Conservationists say the census is important as a large number rhinos continue to die of natural causes in Chitwan, home to around 600 of the 640-odd rhinos found in Nepal.
