Grasslands inside the Chitwan National Park, which alone houses more than 500 of some 3,000 left one-horned rhinos in the world, is drying up at an alarming place. [break]
Such meadows used to cover 20 percent of the total area of the national park when it was established in 1973, but they have now shrunk to 5 percent- posing existential crisis for the rare species.
Of late the rhinos are fiercely competing for food, according to the national park officials. Frequent fighting between male rhinos has resulted in fatalities.
“Only last month a male rhino died in a fighting,” said Kamal Jang Kunwar, Chief Conservation Officer at a program organized by the Chitwan National Park to mark the 4th World Rhino Day at Sauraha on Sunday.
He warned that the hungry rhinos might soon start wandering into human settlement in search of food.
“A clash between humans and the endangered species is the last thing we want,” he said, adding that it is high time that the stakeholders conduct a survey on how much rhinos can be accommodated in the national park for their survival.
The national park has the highest number of the species in the world. Of 534 rhinoceros counted in the country in 2011 census, 503 rhinos are at the national park.
The conservationists expect all the stakeholders, including tourism entrepreneurs to help them in the conservation drive.
“If tourism entrepreneurs contribute Rs 1,000 from million of bucks they make from the safari, we can chalk out an effective plan to conserve the one-horned rhinos,” Kunwar said.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) started celebrating September 22 as World Rhino Day from 2010 as a conservation bid.
Five species of rhinos are found in the world-two are found in Africa and three in South Asia.
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