A Nepalese game reserve just 100km from the border with China – one of the main markets behind rhino poaching – is showing the world how to conserve rhinos.
The story of the Chitwan National Park, which has not lost one of its critically endangered greater one-horned rhinos in five years, was described by explorer Kingsley Holgate at a function to raise funds for Rhino Art in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday night.
Holgate and his team visited densely forested Chitwan on their Cape Town to Kathmandu expedition, the 32nd “adventure with a purpose” overland odyssey with Land Rover.
The 17,000km trip through 10 countries took 146 days.
Addressing the audience at 4X4 Mega World in Walmer, with his traditional Zulu talking stick Nduku lo phefumula in one hand, Holgate said, as in Africa, Asia’s rhino numbers had been decimated.
In Southeast Asia, tens of thousands of greater onehorned rhinoceros had once roamed the region, but the population had been nearly annihilated by poaching and a human population explosion.
“Today, there are fewer than 2,000 greater one-horned rhinos remaining in the wild – but Nepal, through its oldest national park, is turning this situation around.
“Chitwan is home to a growing population of close on 700 greater one-horned rhino and they have not lost one to poaching in more than five years, thanks to political will, support from the King of Nepal, commitment from communities and dedicated military anti-poaching units.
“Despite its position near the border with China, Chitwan is a rhino conservation success story.”
Holgate, who is based in KwaZulu-Natal, is the founder of Rhino Art, an initiative managed in the Eastern Cape by Dave Pattle, of Port Elizabeth.
The Rhino Art programme seeks to educate rural children, especially those living on the edge of game reserves, about the scourge of rhino poaching.
Using fun art competitions and soccer matches, it has so far reached more than 500,000 schoolchildren.
Holgate said the Kathmandu expedition had been born on an earlier Kalahari trip while his team were chatting around a campfire with mugs of their staple coffee, triple tots of Captain Morgan rum and condensed milk in hand.
They created a special template of SA’s southern white rhino and an Asian greater one-horned rhino and took them to schools in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
The pupils filled in the local species in the colours of the South African flag and added their own wishes – and these rhino-themed messages were packed into the expedition Land Rovers and delivered to their counterparts in Nepal, who reciprocated in kind.
“This exchange between youngsters living on opposite sides of the world, but drawn together by their love for their rhino was fundamental to the success of our journey.”
He described their passage in three Land Rovers through Africa, into south and central Asia over 5,000m Himalayan passes, through the Taklamakan Desert and across the famous Wagah-Attari border between Pakistan and India.
He recalled their encounters with stern border officials, who were amazed by their strange cargo – which included a calabash of seawater from Cape Town, a Madiba Scroll of Peace and Goodwill and mosquito nets, water purification LifeStraws and Rite to Sight spectacles for distribution to villagers, as well as crates of rhino art and a stash of Captain Morgan.
He said while the people of Asia were warm and welcoming, air pollution and the population explosion cast a pall.
“You feel like you cannot breathe. By contrast, here in SA we have so much going for us.”