Just last month the news was that the endangered one-horn rhino was making a comeback in Nepal with an increase in numbers recorded in Chitwan National Park. Whether that is true or not (and I naturally disbelieve most things I hear in Nepal) it is clear that poaching is still a huge problem in spite of the Nepalese Army guarding the parks. Just today I read that a rhino was found dead in Bardia National Park yesterday, its horn removed, along with the body of a soldier 400 metres away. The poachers are ruthless and there's a lot of money involved in the trade in animal parts, many of which find there way to the discerning Chinese. I wonder if the victim of the poaching was the magnificent specimen whose picture I showed in yesterday's post?
Increasingly I am becoming interested in somehow supporting conservation projects here (not that there are many to choose from), perhaps through sales of mosaics. Much of Nepal's wildlife seems particularly fragile in the midst of the current chaos and no one cares less than the politicians who are jockeying now for power.
