The census of rhino in various national parks and forest areas slated for this year has been postponed for the next year due to lack of budget. The census of rhino population is being conducted every four years.
The rhino census could not take place this year as the government did not allocate any budget for counting the endangered species, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation said.
The rhino counting conducted every four years in April/May could not take place this year due to budget crunch, Information Officer at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Bishnu Prasad Shrestha said. The last counting was done in 2015.
“We have estimated a budget of Rs 10.9 lakhs for successful counting of rhinos,” he said, adding, “But we failed to collect the amount on time.”
The department had said that it would conduct rhino counting with the help of donors if the government did not allocate the budget.
The department said it could not conduct rhino counting this year as the donors provided only 60 percent of the total budget.
According to Shrestha, the rhino counting has been pushed for the next year due to continuous rainfall and the rhino habitat has also become bushy.
Shrestha said that 170 people and 35 elephants will be deployed for rhino counting.
The rhino counting has raised widespread interests as many rhinos were swept away by floods during the rainy season last year and 41 rhinos were found dead in a span of nine months in Chitwan National Park alone.
According to the 2015 count, Nepal is home to 645 rhinos—605 in Chitwan National Park. Apart from that rhinos are also found in Parsa National Park, Bardiya National Park and Shuklaphanta National Park.
