A baby rhino that was spotted roaming the streets of Chitwan with its mother on January 4 was found dead in Nagarban last week, authorities said on Monday.

“We suspect the calf was gored to death by an adult male rhino,” said Paudel.

Since the start of this fiscal year, 28 rhinos have been found dead inside the Chitwan National Park (CNP) and its buffer zone areas. Of them, three died of old age, six in fighting, and two due to infection. The cause of death of the remaining 17 rhinos is still unknown, according to a data of the CNP.

Twenty-six rhinos were found dead in the last fiscal year, said Information Officer of the park Gopal Ghimire. According to him, three rhinos were found dead in Dumariya, Debital and Khoriyamuhan on January 25.

The park authority has already found 11 rhino carcasses in the current fiscal year. “These rhinos were not killed in poaching incidents as their horns and hooves were found intact,” said Ghimire.

Conservationist Naresh Subedi said that most of the rhinos died fighting one another. “We are investigating the cause behind the growing number of rhino deaths that have nothing to do with poaching, old-age or territorial war,” said Ghimire.

As per the latest census, there are 645 rhinos in the country, of which 605 are in the CNP alone.

Preparation on to send dead rhinos’ samples for test

RSS:

Preparation is underway to send samples of dead rhinos abroad for laboratory tests in view of the rise in unnatural deaths of rhinos in the CNP and its surrounding forest areas. The samples will be sent abroad for necessary tests so as to find the reason behind the increase in rhino death. The park has also constituted a committee to investigate the cause behind these deaths.

Source: http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2019-02-05/baby-rhino-found-dead.html?fbclid=IwAR2N7VwUr4p0mM_OdMl3Y1VHRGGgNNCtOqzxHbUAxHo7F43n0PZgnzY1VQA