A total of 40 rhinos were killed in the past 12 months alone in the Chitawan National Park in central Nepal, the National News Agency, RSS reported on Thursday.

This was revealed at a program organized here Wednesday following a study tour of the National Park, some 100 km south of Kathmandu, carried out by media persons.

The census in 2005 had found 372 rhinos in Chitawan and of them 40 have already been killed by the poachers, it was stated.

According to the RSS, Nepal was home to around 1,000 rhinos in 1950, but the number of the endangered species took a sharp decline to just 100 in 1966. However, the rhino population climbed by 2005.

As a result of the political instability and impact of the conflict, the past five months saw 12 of the endangered species killed by poachers, the RSS said.

Meanwhile, over two dozens of wildlife experts, representing their conservation organizations demanded the government to hold immediate counting of rhinos in the country.

"We have decided to ask the government of Nepal to hold a fair and immediate count of rhinos in Nepal as the poaching is growing to unprecedented rate and we still lack exact data on how many were killed, died and how many remain in the conserved areas," said Ukesh Bhuju, chairman of the Nepal National Committee of International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Members.

He is of view that a fresh rhino count will make lots of clarifications regarding data on surviving and lost numbers of the rhinos.

Source: Xinhua