One-horned rhinoceros were once spotted with regularity in Chitwan National Park, located in southern Nepal. Photo: Emiel Truijen
Wildlife and civil war in Nepal
By Kara Stevens
Spring 2010
The elephant driver bemoaned the shrinking numbers of rhinos, tigers and elephants from Chitwan National Park in the populous southern region of Nepal. We explored the jungle for nearly two hours without a glimpse of a one-horned rhinoceros, a species formerly spotted with regularity. Due to the ongoing 9-year civil war, security forces normally employed to patrol boundaries and prevent poaching were reallocated to fight the homegrown rebel army. The Maoists had been waging a violent and disruptive civil war since 1996. With a rank of 144 on the Human Development Index out of 182 countries, it is not a disruption that Nepal and its fragile environment was equipped to bear.
Stevens
In the absence of park guards local communities encroached farther into the park, and loggers and poachers acted with impunity. As we sat atop the domesticated elephant and rumbled through the forest, it became clear that wildlife was indirectly taking a hit as a result of the conflict. The one-horned rhinoceros has a limited range on the Indian subcontinent, which is made up of isolated populations in northern India and southern Nepal. Bardiya National Park and Chitwan National Park host the majority of Nepal’s rhinos, with just more than 400 estimated in the latter, according to government figures. The value of rhino horn has at one point surpassed gold, but it is not the only target of poacher’s sights. The endangered tiger ranges through national parks from western to central parts of southern Nepal. The government of Nepal estimates that Nepal’s total tiger population may now be fewer than 125 adult breeding individuals. The breakdown in enforcement resulting from the conflict as well as increased demand from wealthy Asian countries for tiger parts and skins has placed significant pressure on this small tiger population. Sandwiched between China and India, two Asian economic powerhouses hosting more than a billion people, Nepal is a transit route for bear bile, medicinal bone, cat skins and live reptiles of the subcontinent to the markets of China.
Nepal is a diverse country that hosts subtropical Indomalayan wildlife such as tigers, leopards, one-horned rhinoceros and Asian elephant in its flat, hot, densely populated southern half. Just 60 miles north — roughly the same distance from Lansing to Grand Rapids — lie the sparsely populated upper hills of Nepal at the foot of the Himalayas, a mountain range that hosts eight of the world’s 10 tallest peaks. During the conflict, these hills, usually filled with villagers tending terraced rice fields amid hordes of Western backpackers, became eerily barren due to rural flight and infrequent tourists. The Maoist rebel army thrived in this environment — extorting “donations” from lodges, schools and scattered tourists. The Maoist reach exceeded police power, and the rural populations often neglected by urban-centered development dollars were caught in the middle between an absent national government and a rebel movement that extorted money and forcibly recruited family members into the People’s Army. Across the hills and mountains roam a unique assemblage of wildlife: the red panda, snow leopard and ungulates like the Himalayan Tahr, musk deer, and the blue sheep. With rural people fleeing the area the wildlife of the northern hills may have experienced a reprieve from harvest and habitat degradation in some areas.
Poachers target rhinos for their horns — the value of which at one point surpassed gold. Photo: Hans Stiglitz
The effects of conflict on Nepal’s environment have not been uniform and they haven’t all been bad. In some hill regions where insecurity has forced emigration, forests have regenerated and wildlife returned. Due to the risk of firearm confiscation or worse, Maoist presence in some remote hilly regions has deterred poachers from treading in search of snow leopard pelts, musk pods or bear bile, extracted from the gall bladder of Asiatic black bears for use in traditional Chinese medicine.
Characteristic of other conflicts, Nepal has seen an influx of more sophisticated weaponry, breakdown of rule of law and internal displacement especially of rural people. The Maoists succeeded in one of their main objectives — dissolving Nepal’s 240-year old monarchy. Since the monarchy was abolished in 2008, the transition to a new style of governance has not been a stable one. To the surprise of many observers, legitimate elections in 2008 brought the leader of the Maoist movement to hold the office of Prime Minister of the country. The Maoists have purportedly laid down their arms. Characteristic of many transition periods from conflict to peace, Nepal has undergone a series of constitutions, political leaders and policies since a peace agreement was signed in 2006. Wildlife conservation seems to factor low on the new leaders’ priority list.
Nepal is not alone in its position as a developing country with rich biodiversity having to cope with environmental degradation as a result of violent conflict. Some regions, like southern Sudan and Nicaragua’s Miskito Coast, experienced significant recovery of wildlife populations and habitat due to the disruptions of war. But very often, war results in devastating losses to biodiversity, as was the case in places like Mozambique, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cambodia.
In the absence of government security, support or stability, park rangers face daunting challenges in protecting a nation’s wildlife. The substantial risks also convey opportunity: conservation organizations can play a key role in organizing, supporting and equipping local communities and government staff to protect vulnerable wildlife populations. The Zoological Society of London has teamed up with community groups in rural Nepal to assemble a group of anti-poaching guards to protect rhinos in Chitwan and Bardia National Parks. Since the program’s implementation, not a single rhino has been lost to poachers in Bardia. When the one-horned rhino population was close to extinction in the early 1900s, strict anti-hunting laws allowed the population to recover.
Six years have passed since my initial search for rhinos in Chitwan National Park. With community members and non-government entities filling the role of diverted park guards, future visitors will potentially have better success in spotting the unique one-horned rhinoceros. ý
Kara Stevens is a first-year doctoral student in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. Contact her at stevenskara@yahoo.com.