Watch: The confessions of poachers in Nepal who killed the endangered one-horned rhinoceros
Poverty in the Chepang community has pushed many into poaching.
For two years, Nepal’s Chitwan National park – home to the biggest population of one-horned rhinoceros – had seen zero poaching of the species.
Just when the efforts of the forest rangers were getting recognition in May, 2016, poachers shot the rhinoceros to death.
Also known as the Indian rhinoceros, the species once occupied an area stretching from the borders of Myanmar in the east, across northern India and southern Nepal, as far as the Indus Valley in Pakistan in the west.
Its population was pushed to extinction, initially thanks to hunting, which later gave away to illegal poaching and habitat destruction.
The poachers have been tapping into the hunting skills of the the Chepangs, a semi-nomadic group who have been historically relying on wild fruits and animals as a source of food.
The video above by Ensia looks at how some take advantage of the Chepangs’ poverty through the testimonies of Dhan and Suklal Bahadur – both of whom were convicted of poaching.
One of the members of the community was Raj Kumar Chepang, a notorious poacher who is currently serving his sentence in the jail for 15 years, the maximum penalty.
The Indian rhinoceros is poached for its horns, which are in demand in China and parts of south-east Asia for medicinal purposes, even though there have been international campaigns to discourage such purchases.
