CHITWAN, May 4: A total of 220 rhinos died in Chitwan National Park (CNP) and its vicinity in the past eight years. The CNP shared that among the casualties, 64 rhinos died of aging and falling off cliff; and 19 died in morass and floods.
Information officer at CNP, Ganesh Prasad Tiwari, told Republica that 51 pachyderms died while fighting each other. Similarly, 20 rhinos were killed in tiger attacks, nine by poachers, eight were electrocuted, while 12 died of illness.
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Three pachyderms died being trapped in a trench, five by consuming toxic things, while the reason behind the death of 29 rhinos is not ascertained yet. Tiwari further said that in the last eight years, 100 male and 76 female rhinos died, while the number of rhinos with unidentified sex stood at 44 in this period. Comparatively, since fiscal year-2072/73, the highest number of deaths, 43, was recorded in fiscal year-2075/76.
Similarly, 14 rhinoceroses- lowest in eight years- died in fiscal year-2072/73. The CNP has been running various programmes to manage grazing land and conserve water for rhinos.
