By Anbarasan
EthirajanBBC News, Chitwan National Park , central Nepal
Once Chitwan National Park
in Nepal
was the favourite hunting ground of poachers, but now it is they who are on the
run and being hunted.
It is a rare
successful conservation story in South Asia ,
where park officials and the Nepalese army have managed to turn the tide
against poaching in the last few years.
Wild animals
such as tigers, rhinos, elephants and leopards have been regularly killed by
poachers for their body parts and skin, which fetch thousands of dollars on the
black market.
The national
park in the foothills of the Himalayas has
succeeded particularly in protecting its most famous resident - the one-horned
rhinoceros, also known as the Great Indian rhinoceros - from poachers.
Anti-insurgency
operations
Some
conservationists believe it is one of the most endangered animals in the world
- it features prominently on the red list of the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
“Around 20 or 25 elephants will take part in
the exercise and we will scour an entire area with bushes or tall grass looking
for poachers' dens or hide outs”, Rupak
MahajanChitwan national park co-ordinator of anti-poaching operations.
The World
Wildlife Fund (WWF) says that one-horned rhinos are hunted because its horn is
used in traditional East Asian medicines - though there is no scientific proof
of its medicinal value.
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