After two days of extensive work for capturing rhinos to be gifted to China, a male animal was caught in Chitwan National Park on Saturday.

CNP officials took the rhino under control from the Devital area of the park, according to Chief Conservation Officer Bed Kumar Dhakal. The rhino is about two years old.

A team of nearly 70 individuals including wildlife experts, park officials, veterinarians, rangers and technicians from the National Trust for Nature Conser-vation, aided by four elephants, have been mobilised for the purpose.

The team has been on a mission for the past few days to look for rhinos to be gifted to the government of China. “We had been on the lookout for the rhino inside the core area of the park for many days,” said Dhakal.

“Before capture we need to ascertain the age and sex of the animal. It has to be caught safely at the right place, which takes time.”

China had requested Nepal to gift two pairs of one-horned rhinos when the then forest minister Agni Sapkota visited the country in January, 2016. Following the request, which resurfaced during Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s visit to the northern neighbour the same year, the government in July that year decided to gift the endangered animals.

The government plans to send one pair this fiscal year while the other will be dispatched in the next fiscal year, said Dhakal.

The CNP has already prepared two types of boma for sending the animals to China. The rhinos will be kept and fed inside the enclosure under watch for months in preparation for their departure.

Former crown prince Paras Shah had gifted a pair of rhinos to Austria in 2006.