A notorious rhino-killing gang is now in custody.

Nepalese authorities have arrested five people suspected of killing at least six – and possibly seven – rhinos over the past year in Chitwan National Park. The gang members were identified as Kajiman Praja, his two wives Sanu Maya Praja and Dil Maya Praja, his sister Kalpana Praja, and another relative, Dei Praja.

Police apprehended the suspects in the Syangja district, at the National Hotel and Lodge.

The “Praja poachers” are from the indigenous Chepang community. Chepang, along with Tharu and Tamang people, are frequently recruited by wildlife trafficking syndicates to carry out the murders of Nepal’s precious rhinos. The women and young people are then used to smuggle rhino horn into the cities of Kathmandu and Pokhara (Pers. comm., Suman Bhattarai, PARC/Nepal).

Nepal has already lost one rhino to the illegal rhino horn trade in 2011. The tragedy occurred during the first week of January in Chitwan National Park.

Serious sentencing

It is unlikely that this gang will be back to “work” anytime soon.

World-renowned expert in rhino horn and ivory trade, Dr. Esmond Martin, was recently interviewed by Wildlife Direct’s Paula Kahumbu. He explained that in Nepal, punishments for killing rhinos are determined by the forest department, not the courts.

In May 2010, Chitwan National Park officials handed out prison sentences to 16 rhino poachers. Three received ten years in jail, one received 14 years, and the remaining twelve will spend 15 years in prison.

Earlier this month, a rhino killer was shot dead by a joint patrol team of Bardia National Park and the Nepal Army after the poachers opened fire on the patrol unit.

Greater one-horned rhinos in Nepal

Approximately 435 greater one-horned rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) reside in Nepal, within the protected areas of Chitwan National Park, Bardia National Park, and Shukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve.

Chitwan National Park also enjoyed a rhino baby boom in 2010, with the birth of eight calves.

Greater one-horned rhinos were once widespread throughout the northern floodplains and nearby foothills of the Indian sub-continent between Indo-Myanmar border in the east, and Sindh River basin, Pakistan in the west. Today, the remaining 2,850 greater one-horned rhinos are found only in a few protected areas in northeastern India and lowland Nepal.

Traditional medicine myths continue to threaten rhinos

Although the greater one-horned rhino population is steadily increasing, these rhinos remain under threat of being killed for their horn.

Despite the fact that extensive scientific analysis has confirmed that rhino horn has no medicinal properties, myths and superstitions about rhino horn persist throughout China and Vietnam, where rhino horn is considered a key ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine.

Sources: Personal communication (December 2010), Suman Bhattarai, PARC/Nepal; “4 poachers who killed 7 rhinos in a year arrested.” The Himalayan Times. 27 February 2011; “Five rhino poachers arrested in Nepal.” MSN India. 27 February 2011.

Image: istockphoto.com

Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. Besides writing Rhino Horn is Not Medicine, I am the author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, the Editor of Project Pangolin, and a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

Website - Twitter - Facebook - More Posts

See Rhino Horn is Not Medicine for more information.

This week’s book is “The Soul of the Rhino: A Nepali Adventure with Kings and Elephant Drivers, Billionaires and Bureaucrats, Shamans and Scientists, and the Indian Rhinoceros” by Hemanta Mishra, with forewords by Bruce Babbitt and Jim Fowler.

Book Summary: The Soul of the Rhino is the uniquely personal journey of Hemanta Mishra, the native Nepali who, inspired by Yellowstone, helped create Chitwan National Park. Mishra tells us the personal story of his three decade mission to protect Nepal’s rhinos, from the riverine forests of Chitwan with his Tharu guide, to his epiphany at Yellowstone – and back to Nepal to build one of the world’s last havens for the greater one-horned rhino. A touching account of the early struggles between Nepali culture, politics, and rhino conservation science, The Soul of the Rhino is a unique and remarkable journey that is not be missed.

Why this book is important: The Soul of the Rhino is a real-life lesson in tenacity: How one man’s love and admiration for the greater one-horned rhino changed Nepal’s wildlife conservation strategy forever. Mishra’s gift to the reader is both touching and brutal, a source of inspiration proving that one person’s calling in life can be the catalyst for saving a species.

Quotable moment:

For me, the greatest challenge for conservation in Chitwan was linking human welfare to saving the rhino. Though my methods to face these challenges changed, my mission remained the same for three decades. How was I to help rhinos and humans live as good neighbors? How was I to make a live rhino worth more than a dead one? How was I to develop schemes that provided direct economic benefits to the local people? For wildlife managers these questions are still as valid today as they were thirty years ago and are applicable to all endangered species.

Hemanta Mishra’s Yellowstone ‘epiphany’

On the last day of my visit, I purified myself by sprinkling the chilly water of the Yellowstone River all over my body. Later in the afternoon I watched Old Faithful shoot a dense column of steam and water more than 150 feet up in the air. I prayed to the unseen and unknown deities of Yellowstone and said to myself, “If the Americans could do it in the nineteenth century, why can’t we, the Nepalese, do it in the twentieth century?”

In July 1972 I returned to Nepal to continue my work in building Nepal’s first national park in Chitwan.

Where to purchase ‘The Soul of the Rhino’

You can purchase The Soul of the Rhino: A Nepali Adventure with Kings and Elephant Drivers, Billionaires and Bureaucrats, Shamans and Scientists, and the Indian Rhinoceros online at Amazon.com.

Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. Besides writing Rhino Horn is Not Medicine, I am the author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, the Editor of Project Pangolin, and a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

Website - Twitter - Facebook - More Posts

See Rhino Horn is Not Medicine for more information.