Chitwan, March 2: The rhino census, which is conducted every five years, has become uncertain due to lack of budget.
This year, there has been a shortage of budget for conducting rhino count as it has been done depending on funding from donors. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation has been conducting rhino census in collaboration with various agencies working with the park.
Department’s ecologist and information officer Haribhadra Acharya said that an agreement had been reached with USAID’s ‘Jal Jungle project’ for the purchase of the necessary equipment for conducting the rhino census, but the census has become uncertain now that the project is suspended.
The project had already started the process of procuring materials by issuing a tender notice. The project was to bear the expenses of GPS equipment, laptops, large cooking utensils, tents and other materials required during the census inside the park.
“The project was supposed to provide materials worth Rs 5 million. It is estimated that around Rs 15 million would be required to complete the census,” he said. Preparations were made to conduct the census in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund Nepal, ZSL Nepal, National Trust for Nature Conservation and other organizations.
According to him, the rhino census has to be done by coming mid-April. Preparations were made to conduct the census from March 18 to April 7 and release the results by the second week of April. “The census can’t be beyond mid-April. The preparations for it take at least 10 days,” he explained.
Acharya, the Department’s Information Officer, said that the department’s census programme would be affected as the project of the donor agency is suspended in the last hour. Director General of the Department, Dr Ram Chandra Kandel, said that the suspension of the donor support has affected the counting during the final preparations.
He added that the rhino census could be conducted if the budget is received after discussing the matter with the ministry or else they will be forced to suspend it. The tiger census will have to be carried out next year and he said that it would be easier to conduct the tiger census next year if rhino count could be done this year as it would not be possible to conduct both censuses at the same time.
Although the rhinos are being monitored, the census has to be done to find out their exact number and condition. The last rhino census was conducted in 2021. The census will make it easy to determine the number of rhinos inhabiting in particular area and to manage it.
The endangered one-horned rhino is found in Chitwan, Parsa, Bardiya and Shukla Phanta national parks. The Chitwan National Park has the highest number of rhinos at 694 as per the 2021 census. The number of rhinos in Nepal has reached 752. #nepal #Rhino census #rss
