Chitwan National Park bags int’l award for maintaining ‘zero poaching’ of rhinos

The Chitwan National Park has received an international award in recognition to its efforts for rhino conservation. The park had taken special measures to protect the one-horned rhino from poaching for the last few years. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has highly appreciated the measures adopted by the Park Administration to control rhino poaching, the Park Administration informed the journalists in Chitwan Thursday. Yolanda Kakabadse, International President of the WWF, herself arrived in Chitwan and presented the award, said Tikaram Paudel, Spokesperson and Assistant Conservation Officer of the Park. Similarly, the NA personnel, who are working in wildlife conservation in the Bardiya National Park, the Buffer Zone Management Committee of the Chitwan National Park, and National Trust for Nature Conservation were also awarded for succeeding to mark the year as a zero poaching period, said, Bishnu Thapaliya, Assistant Conservation Officer of the Park. The Investigation bureau of Nepal Police was also honored with the award. The Chitwan National Park had marked 2011, too, as the zero poaching year, however, in the later two years, two rhinos were poached. The Park released a data showing no rhinos were killed in the last 365 days beginning from February 16, 2013, though 10 of them died due to natural causes. The Chitwan National Park is a special tourism destination to the domestic and foreign visitors because of the rhinos, tigers, wild elephants and crocodiles along with other animals and birds. The Chitwan National Park alone has a total of 503 one-horned rhinos which is an endangered wild animal species in the world.