A Nepal one-horned rhino

Kathmandu, Jan. 3 (Reuters): Dozens of endangered great one-horned rhinoceros have mysteriously gone missing from a nature reserve in southwest Nepal over the past few years, a wildlife official said today.

Authorities introduced 72 rhinos, also known as the Indian rhinoceros, in the Babai Valley, 320 km southwest of Kathmandu, as part of a conservation drive that started in 1984.

“We have records showing 23 rhinos had died due to poaching or other causes. The rest are missing,” Laxmi Prasad Manandhar, a senior official at the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation, said.

But he ruled out the possibility of all the 49 missing rhinos falling prey to poachers.

“If poachers had killed them they should have left behind the bodies” after taking away the horn, he said, adding that just one rhino skeleton had been found during an extensive search in June.

“Where did they go? I have no answer. It is a mystery,” Manandhar said.

The rhinos were moved to Babai Valley from Chitwan National Park on Nepal’s southern plains under a conservation scheme supported by global conservation group WWF. In December, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the government to step up security at Chitwan — the Himalayan nation's biggest rhino reserve — after local media reported at least 10 animals had been killed since July.