Nepal National Parks Chitwan Rhinos to loose their army protection August 2002 Study on translocation of antelopes June 2002 Chitwan National Park begins artificial hatching of Gharials April 2002 Nawalparasi: Couple held for selling rhino horn March 2002 Chitwan: Rhino population in Nepal March 2002 Chitwan: Another rhino translocation March 2002 Chitwan: Rhinos killed - Poaching is on the rise March 2002

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The Chitwan National Park is one of the highlights Nepal can offer to its visitors. Every year thousands of local and foreign visitor come to Chitwan NP to see antelopes, tigers, bears, several species of birds, gharial crocodiles and last, but not least the famous one-horned rhinos.

The visitors pay good money to see all these animals in an amazing landscape dominated by the Narayani river system. The park is guarded by the National Park Service and the Royal Nepal Army (RNA). The biggest threat for the endangered rhinos is poaching. The government have to spend a lot of money to fight against the Maoist insurgency. The protection of the park is too expensive for the national army, government officials say. The RNA want to withdraw its patrols from the park. WWF Nepal is in alert.

A study on the habitation and adaptation for the translocation of some species of antelopes at the Chitwan National Park from the Royal Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve has been initiated.
The study was started for timely protection of antelopes on the backdrop of inbreeding and natural catastrophe. Antelope which has been listed as endangered species in the world is only found in the protected areas of Nepal and India. In Nepal, it is found only in the Royal Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve and the Bardiya National Park numbering 2,514 at Shuklaphanta and only 91 in Bardiya.
The translocation will be successful because of the same kind of soil, grassland and bio-diversity in Chitwan and evidences have been found that there were antelopes in Chitwan before 1950.
The antelopes' extinction can also cause the extinction of tigers. The wildlife reserve administration has the challenge to manage the habitation in Shuklaphanta as antelopes live there in herds of 500 to 700.

With an aim to preserve the rare Gharial crocodile, the Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) have begun collecting the eggs from its natural habitat. The egg will be hatched under the direct inspection of the RCNP experts. The RCNP decided to take this step, as the number of crocodile of this species was decreasing due to different reasons.

The eggs of crocodile could not prosper in the natural habitat, as the people used to steal them for medicine use. Sometimes they were swept away by flood and were also eaten by wild animals.

The Poaching Protest Unit formed by Chitwan National Park has arrested a couple in a village of Nawalparasi district who were trying to sell a rhino horn. The culprits were arrested by Royal Chitwan National Park employees. The horn of the endangered rhino can cost upto thirty millions rupees. Two dozens of rhinos were killed in Chitwan National Park this year among which only horns were recovered so far.

A census conducted in May 2002 put the population of the Asiatic one-horned rhino in Nepal at 612, up from 446-466 in 1994. Of these, 544 were in Chitwan National Park, one of the world's best rhino habitats included in UNESCO's World Heritage Site list, while 67 others were in Royal Bardiya National Park, and one more in Royal Shukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve.

The total population of one-horned rhino, which was found in abundance from Pakistan to Myanmar at the turn of the last century, today stands at 2,618 world wide. Their population in India stands at 1,868, while 138 more live in captivity in zoos.

Park conservation officials moved deep into the bushes of Royal Chitwan National Park to capture ten adult rhinos and transport them to Royal Bardiya National Park in western Nepal.

Officials at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), the government authority responsible for managing the country's protected areas, are working together with the technicians of the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to move the rhinos.

This will be last batch of rhinos we are moving from Chitwan to Bardiya, Park authorities said. Bardiya National Park already have a viable population of the rare animals. This translocation will be the seventh batch of rhinos from Chitwan to Bardiya. Officials have already moved nearly 80 rhinos to what is emerging as the country's second largest habitat of the endangered animals. The rhino population in Bardiya has already crossed 80, and officials want to move a few more rhinos to Royal Shukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve in far-western Nepal. Officials have already moved four rhinos there.

Serui-Chuli, a beautiful spot, situated at the Kaule Village Development Committee, can be developed as a tourist site. Chitwan Tourism Development Committee has decided to develop this wonderful site with various scenes and sceneries into a tourist spot.

The spot lies about 2,042 metres above the sea level. Visitors can reach the place in 6-hour walk from Shaktikhar in east Chitwan. "We are going to develop Serai Chuli as the 'Nagarkot' of our district," said Jagannath Thapaliya, Deputy president of CDDC. The site offer panoramic view of the rising sun and also. organisations such as King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation and Nepal Chamber of Commerce and Industry have pledged financial help to develop the site into a tourist spot.