Eight including former pilot and soldier arrested for poaching rhi

Kathmandu, Mar 14 (UNI) Nepalese officials arrested eight persons including a former pilot and a Nepali Army soldier, on the charge of poaching the endangered one-horned rhino.

The officials of Chitwan national park arrested eight including 76-year-old retired pilot Ramesh Chandra Pokharel and a Nepali soldier Madhav Bahadur Budhathoki for poaching the rhino.

While Budhathoki is currently working at the Jungle Warfare Army School in Amlekhgunj, Pokharel, a resident of Dumarwana, Bara District is currently living at Dilli Bazaar, Kathmandu and had spent 21 years in service as a pilot.

Pokharel allegedly supplied guns to other smugglers and Budhathoki supplied live ammunition to them, a local newspaper quoted the Park officials as saying.

More than 100 endangered one-horned rhinos have been killed since December 2006.

UNI