Chitwan, February 27

As many as 32 rhinos died due to natural causes in Chitwan National Park from the beginning of this fiscal to till date, while 25 rhinos died due to the same reasons in the last fiscal.

Chief Conservation Officer Bed Kumar Dhakal of CNP said that reasons behind the large number of rhinos’ death were being studied. He said that as many as 37 rhinos had died through poaching in 2002,which was brought under control since then He added that it was a matter of great concern to conservationists that the rhinos were dying due to natural causes even though poaching was brought under control.

According to the CNP, the rhino deaths were due to fights between the beasts, because they fell off soil mounts or fell into quicksands, alligator attacks, they fell prey to tigers, could not give birth and they fell ill.

As many as two rhinos died after an alligator attacked a two-week-old baby rhino yesterday. Similarly, a three-year-old rhino died after a male rhino hit a baby rhino in the park on Tuesday. The average age of the rhino is 40 to 60 years. Dhakal said that investigation was under way to search for reasons after the rhinos began to die due to natural causes in the CNP.

According to CNP statistics, as many as eight rhinos died in 2014, 15 in 2015, 14 in 2016 and 24 in 2017 due to natural cause. Rhinos have not been poached since April 2017. According to the latest statistics, there are 605 rhinos in CNP.