Image Source: Flickr. By: Karthek.
We live in a vast world with many different creatures. It may come as a surprise to learn where some species call home—especially when those places tend to be pretty remote and dangerous. Unfortunately, some of those dangers can still come from humans.
In the past 11 months, 28 Indian Rhinos were poached throughout Nepal’s Himalayan Mountains. An investigation is currently underway as conservation officials, police and army chiefs were ordered to come up with a strategy to put a stop to the killings, once and for all.
Although the rhinos are already protected by the government and the forests are known as conservation areas, it’s simply not enough to discourage poachers. Security forces are supposed to be guarding them, but political unrest has pushed some forces to urban areas.
Department of Forest and Wildlife Conservation official, Megh Bahadur Pandey, explained:
“Stopping the poaching is a major challenge for us. There is always an increase in poaching of wildlife in the conservation area when there is political problems.”
The Indian Rhinoceros, or Great One-horned Rhinoceros, is the second largest of 5 remaining rhino species. Its range used to cover the entire stretch of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, but now its confined to the Himalayan foothills. Currently, the Nepal rhino population is barely over 400.
You can find out more about the Indian Rhino here, with further resources at the bottom of that page.
By Heidi Marshall
