Nepal is set to present four rhinos to China as a gift, out of which one was captured at Chitwan National Park yesterday.

Nepal government is to gift two male and two female rhinos to the Chinese government.

Assistant Protection Officer Nurendra Aryal at the Chitwan National Park said that they have been trying hard to take rhinos under control from Friday.

Aryal said taking rhinos under control was a very difficult task as the government had planned to send one and two-year-old rhinos.

According to Aryal, the male rhino was taken under control from the area near Devital and Khoriya Muhan in the western sector of the park. But, as per their plan, they were supposed to seize a female rhino first. The male rhino of around two years was taken under control by shooting it with a tranquilliser dart. The rhino has been taken to Sauraha in a vehicle. The rhino will be kept at a man-made rhino shed in Sauraha.

The plan is to send the controlled rhinos to China after they develop a kind of rapport with humans. It will take some three months, said Aryal.

A discussion is under way on sending the seized male rhino to China. Aryal said that other rhinos, in the meantime, will be taken under control from the western area at CNP. A team of technicians at the park had been searching for an appropriate habitat for the rhinos since the past week.

Prime Minister KP Oli had decided to gift two rhino couples to China during his first tenure of premiership.

After that, a Nepali team has returned home after studying the place where the rhinos would be kept in China while a Chinese team has returned after studying about the behavior of rhinos in Nepal.

Source: The Himalayan Times