Rhino ‘Bodyguards’ Making a Difference in Nepal
In Nepal’s Bardia National Park, bodyguards are protecting greater one-horned rhinos from poachers.
The rhino bodyguards - riding atop elephants - are making a difference: Since deployment of the program 18 months ago, there have not been any rhinos killed by poachers in Bardia National Park.
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The rhino bodyguard program is a collaboration between conservationists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and local communities.
Sadly, Nepal’s rhino population had previously suffered at the hands of those entrusted to protect them - military men who turned out to be working with poachers.
Rogue members of the Nepalese army stationed to protect the rhino were eventually exposed as being responsible for killing the animals. This betrayal prompted a new collaborative approach between the army, conservationists and local people to secure the future of the greater one-horned rhino in Nepal’s grasslands.
In Chitwan National park, the rhino bodyguard program is now being implemented with encouraging results.
Illegal trade in rhino horn ‘flourishing’
Despite the worldwide ban on trade in endangered species products, rhinos are killed due to an unfortunate Chinese superstition attributing healing powers to the rhino’s horn. As incomes continue to rise in China and some Asian countries, the illegal trade in rhino horn - and other endangered species products - is flourishing.
The demand - mainly from China - for rhino horn has resulted a 90% decline in the global rhinoceros population over the last 30 years.
Nepal Nature Conservation Year 2009
A seminar and special evening to mark the Nepal Nature Conservation Year 2009 and raise funds for the vital conservation work in this remarkable region is being held on Tuesday 24 November 2009 at ZSL London Zoo. The event is hosted by ZSL and the UK Trust for Nature Conservation in Nepal. For further information on the Fragile Nepal event, please visit: http://www.zsl.org/nepal
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
There are only about 60 Javan rhinos left in the world and the black rhinoceros is disappearing faster than any other mammal. Rhino horn is used in China as a drug, in the Middle East horns are carved to make dagger handles. Some conservationists cut off rhinos’ horns to make the animals worthless to poachers.