In this week’s Extinction Sucks Aleisha Caruso and Ashleigh Young go all out to try and aid the endangered Indian Rhino. The pair travel to Nepal, the only other place in the world where you can find Indian Rhinos, to investigate the poaching situation.
There are less than 410 Indian Rhinos left in Nepal. A good place to find them is in the Chitwan National Park – a park divided into the buffer zone where locals are allowed to stray and the core zone which is only open to controlled tourism.
Guides from WWF Nepal explain how locals near the buffer zone can hope to earn around 5000 or 6000 rupees a month but by poaching rhinos they might make 6000 rupees a day. The temptation is clear. Sound like a lot of money? That’s about AU $70 or, as Ashleigh explains, about the price of a pair of shoes.
This week’s adventure begins with the Extinction Sucks pair raising money to buy spy camera equipment for WWF Nepal. The initial idea of a jungle curry is aborted due to concerns over… the smell, so the pair move on to inviting a chef with truly crazy hair baking cookies. This leads to a roller skating rhino selling them.
The flight from Kathmandu to Chitwan National Park in Nepal is interesting as Aleisha is prone to panic attacks while flying and the tiny plane taking them to the park is one of the Yeti Airlines fleet.
In Pure Spirits
Nepal has recently transitioned from being an absolute monarchy to a fledgling democracy. With all the issues the new government has to work through – where should the fate of the Indian Rhino be on their list?
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