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| Location: |
Asia - South Asia - Nepal |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Records |
| Species: |
Indian Rhino |
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Prince of Wales hunt in 1907. This rhinoceros is found in the Nepal terai, in Morang, north of Purnea, on the Kosi, at Patharghatta, on the banks of the Bagmati north of Muzaffarpur, and as stated by Mr. Lydekker, it is even more numerous still farther to the west in the Chitwan and Naolpur valleys along the banks of the Gandak and the Rapti rivers.
In justice to His Highness the maharaja of Nepal and the other Nepalese sportsmen, who took part in the great hunt referred to in the above article, I can, as an eye witness of what occurred, assure your readers that the account which Mr Lydekker has heard is entirely garbled and misleading. The ground that was shot over in January and February 1907 was rthe tract originally preserved by the Nepal Government for the shooting which they had hoped to give His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales in 1906. This had to be abandoned owing to a severe outbreak of cholera in the Maharaja's camp, which sprad among the elephant drivers and rendered all question of a succesful undertaking that year an impossibility. The total number of rhinos bagged was 28 (14 males and 14 females) and in addition 6 rhino calves were caught.
In spite of the numbers of rhino which were killed in January 1907, the forests in Chitawan are still so full of them that no appreciable diminution in the stock has been made. The Maharajah was good enough to let me invite his Highness the Maharaja of Bikaner and another friend to shoot in February 1908, in the Naolpur area bordering on Chitawan. My friends had no difficulty within two days in securing the four rhino for which I had asked the Nepal Durbar to limit the permit.
Mr F.W. Gordon-Canning of the Pursa Factory, Champaran wrote in a letter dated 25 May 1909 about his fishing in the Rapti in 1909: ?Rhinos are simply in swarms; I counted 20 within a mile of my camp, and I did not go into the good ground. There were ten big ones in a small piece of grass not more than 5 acres in extent.'
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Haunts of the Indian rhinoceros
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