One Horned Rhino >> Level of Poaching

Level of poaching Three different types of people are involved in poaching activities, particularly for rhino, tiger and bear. As explained by Adhkari (in Adhkari et. al 1999), they include traders, mediator or middleman, and poachers. Usually, mediators contact the local people and encourage them to kill animals. Local people know the activities of park/protection units and the m secret routes as well. After poaching the wildlife, poacher handover the valuable parts of animals to the middleman, who then smuggles the body parts to the city where traders live. Traders generally live in the towns or cities.

Analysis of cases filed in the Chitwan National Park shows that more than 60% people involved in poaching are from the bufferzone area.. People of the buffer zone found involved in poaching while those outside from the buffer zone as a middle man and traders.

Poachers do have preferences for poaching activities. The months of January to May are the two peak months of winter and summer respectively. Highest poaching in January could be due to the higher visibility in open grasslands after grass cutting. Similarly, the March, April and May are the months in which rhino prefers to spend most of the time wallowing in waterholes and the open grassland also increase visibility. This is also a favorable situation for poachers to wait near the water holes. Poachers also take advantage of low mobility of staffs during rainy season (due to tall grass and rainy days).

Past incidents show that timing of shooting of rhino is generally between 7 to 10 AM in the morning and 1 to 4 pm in the afternoon. The incidents occur during the time of grazing near the waterhole and grassland. It takes half an hour to cut horn after killing the animal. Mostly rhino is shot in the head (a bullet in case modern firearm and home made iron rod). The horn is cut out by a sharp knife.