A one-horned rhinoceros runs under streetlights in the heart of Bharatpur as onlookers pull out their mobile phones to film the scene. Others step back in alarm.

As night falls, such scenes around Bharatpur’s busy Chaubiskothi Chowk are no longer rare. What was once considered an extraordinary sight has become an increasingly common intrusion by a conserved animal species.

The shift has prompted a broader question in Chitwan: Have rhinos entered the city, or have human settlements expanded deeper into their habitat?

Chitwan National Park remains Nepal’s primary habitat for the greater one-horned rhinoceros and draws thousands of domestic and international visitors every year. But the growing presence of rhinos beyond protected boundaries is reshaping life in nearby settlements.

Apil Ghimire, a resident of Patihani in Bharatpur who runs a Rapti river clean-up campaign, posted a video on social media on April 19 showing a rhino running through Chaubiskothi at night.

Alongside the clip, he wrote: “A rhino can appear anywhere in Chitwan at any time. That is not unusual. This is its home. We need to remain cautious.”

Wildlife researcher Dadi Sapkota posted another widely shared video on May 11 showing two male rhinos fighting on a road in Sauraha.

“The rhinos have not entered human settlements,” he wrote. “It is the settlements and roads that have entered their habitat. This should not be surprising.”

Rising risks in settlements

While rhino sightings have become a spectacle for tourists, many residents living near the park boundary say they now live with constant fear and loss.

In some cases, encounters have turned deadly.

Ambika Pathak, 60, lives in Narayani Dobhan Tole in ward 3 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City, around two-and-a-half kilometres west of Narayanghat. Her husband, 65-year-old Tej Bahadur Pathak, used to graze goats and often walked about a kilometre from home in the evenings.

On January 31, Ambika received news that he would not return home again.

“He used to go out with livestock and return late in the evening. That night he never came back,” she said. “We found his body around one to one-and-a-half kilometres from home. We could not go searching at night because rhinos are often seen nearby. Someone found him in the morning and informed us.”

Residents say rhinos are now frequently spotted near their homes, sometimes with calves.

Rajendra Kandel, chair of the Rameshwar Shanti Tole Development Committee in ward 4 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City, said rhino movement into residential areas has increased steadily over the past several years.

“There is a municipal forest nearby, and we have seen seven or eight rhinos there,” he said. “Earlier there were none, but their numbers have gradually increased. In the past year, sightings have become much more frequent.”

He said concerns about wildlife movement have also been raised during public hearings organised by the municipal office.

“Except for the death of Pathak, no major incident has been reported so far,” Kandel said. “But this is a settlement close to the city. The main market area is only two to three kilometres away. People leave home early in the morning and return late in the evening, which is also when rhinos are active. Fear among residents is growing.”

In Narayanghat, some elderly residents have altered their daily routines because of the fear of encounters.

Eighty-six-year-old Prajapati Sapkota said he no longer walks south during his morning walks after repeatedly encountering rhinos near Dharapani.

“For the past few years, I have been walking east towards Sahid Chowk instead,” he said.

Gita Bayalkoti, who has lived in the Naughare area for 30 years, said rhinos now regularly move through nearby forests and settlements.

“Earlier, we never saw rhinos in the municipal forest. Now they live there,” she said. “At night, they come towards settlements and return to the forest in the morning. They often pass right next to our homes.”

Residents say rhinos have also been spotted as far as Lanku, nearly three kilometres south of the forest corridor.

Wildlife officials believe some rhinos seen in urban junctions such as Chaubiskothi may have come from nearby forest blocks, although exact tracking remains unclear.

Expanding range and shifting habitat

According to data published by Chitwan National Park in May 2023, rhinos have been recorded leaving the park through 127 different points. Movement into buffer zones and adjacent farmland is considered routine.

What has become more noticeable in recent years, however, is their increasing movement into municipal forests and semi-urban areas.

The municipal forest near Pulchowk in Narayanghat lies close to residential settlements. From the Narayani bridge, rhinos grazing near human habitation can sometimes be seen along the forest edge.

To the west lies a continuous belt of community forests under the Division Forest Office, which are increasingly being recognised as emerging rhino habitats.

Surbir Pokharel, former chair of the Federation of Community Forest Users Nepal in Chitwan, said rhino numbers in these forests have increased over the past two decades.

“They are now using these community forests as habitat. We have even seen rhinos with calves in these areas,” he said.

Pokharel said winter is the peak season for rhino movement.

“In winter, grass inside forests becomes scarce, while crops such as wheat, maize and vegetables are available in nearby fields,” he said. “Rhinos come out to feed. They even travel as far as the Rampur wetland, around four kilometres from the forest. Locals now call the area ‘Rhino Wetland’.”

Officials at the Division Forest Office in Bharatpur acknowledge the same trend.

“The Gyaneshwar forest block is not very large,” said information officer Devi Paudel. “There is water, but not enough grass. That is why rhinos move out to graze.”

Park officials and conservation activists say rhinos increasingly emerge from forests in search of grass and tender foliage.

Conservation workers say the shortage of suitable grazing areas inside parts of the national park has pushed rhinos towards farmland and settlements, where crops and fresh grass are more easily available.

Local residents, however, also point to the expansion of community forests and afforestation campaigns around settlements, arguing that newly regenerated forests now provide favourable grazing grounds and movement corridors for rhinos outside their traditional habitats.

They say decades of coexistence between local communities and wildlife in buffer zones have also made rhino sightings outside protected areas more common. Frequent interactions between people and wildlife around settlements, roads and farmlands have gradually normalised the presence of rhinos in areas once considered outside their regular range.

Paudel added that most movement occurs at night or early morning, increasing the likelihood of encounters with commuters.

Wildlife expert Baburam Lamichhane, formerly associated with the National Trust for Nature Conservation’s Sauraha office, said rhino movement outside protected areas has actually declined compared to earlier decades.

“If you look back 20 or 30 years, rhinos could be seen almost everywhere in Chitwan,” he said. “People would actively chase them away from fields. That situation has changed significantly.”

He attributed the shift to habitat management measures such as grassland management, electric fencing and concrete barriers inside the park.

Ganesh Pant, former chief conservation officer of Chitwan National Park and currently working at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, said competition among male rhinos often pushes weaker individuals towards settlements.

“When dominant males fight, weaker ones are driven out of forest areas and towards human settlements,” he said.

Pant said rhinos are increasingly using new habitats such as municipal forests, and the reasons behind the shift are not immediately clear.

“It could be linked to climate change or other ecological pressures. We need proper research,” he said.

The changing rhino movement pattern is also linked to Chitwan’s long environmental and demographic transformation.

When Chitwan National Park was established in 1973, it covered around 544 square kilometres. The protected area was later expanded to 932 square kilometres in 1977. In 1996, around 766 square kilometres across four adjoining districts- Chitwan, Nawalparasi, Makwanpur and Parsa- were declared buffer zones, while another 21-square-kilometre section previously managed as a community buffer forest was brought under revised park boundaries in 2016.

Before malaria eradication and rapid settlement expansion in the 1950s and 1960s, the Chitwan valley had nearly 2,600 square kilometres of uninterrupted forests and grasslands, much of it used as a private hunting reserve by the ruling elite. Large-scale deforestation and human encroachment cleared more than 70 percent of those forests, prompting the government to establish the national park to protect wildlife habitats and prevent local extinction of species such as the one-horned rhino and Royal Bengal tiger.

Both Pant and Lamichhane said Chitwan remains fundamentally rhino territory and residents need to remain alert.

Conservation debate and management challenges

Tourism entrepreneur Aryal argues that rhinos frequently seen in new areas should be relocated back to their original habitats inside the park.

“Earlier, rhinos were concentrated in the eastern sector of the park,” he said. “Now census data show their numbers have declined in the east and increased in the west. Rhinos from newer areas should be brought back and released in their original habitat.”

Local leaders in Bharatpur-4 have voiced similar concerns.

Forest officials, however, say limited resources have restricted mitigation efforts.

“We received a budget of around Rs500,000. That is hardly enough for fencing or setting up barriers,” said Devi Paudel. “Some work has been done, but it is far from sufficient.”

According to the last rhino census conducted five years ago, Nepal is home to 752 rhinos, of which 694 are in Chitwan National Park and surrounding forests.

Wildlife attacks in buffer zones and nearby settlements remain a serious concern. According to Abinash Thapa Magar, information officer at Chitwan National Park, 10 people were killed in wildlife attacks in the park’s buffer zone in the last fiscal year.

Eight of those deaths were caused by rhinos.

In the current fiscal year, rhino attacks have killed two more people, while a tiger attack has claimed one life.

Rhinos themselves are also increasingly at risk outside protected areas. In the current fiscal year alone, two rhinos died from electrocution while grazing in the fields in Kawasoti of Nawalparasi East and Madi in Chitwan.

What is emerging in Chitwan is a fragile shared landscape where the boundary between forest and settlement is becoming increasingly difficult to define.

The recent footage of the rhino coming dangerously close to humans spread widely on domestic and international media platforms.

The videos also renewed attention on Meghauli, a male rhino known locally for frequently moving between forests and settlements. It was rescued as a calf during the 2017 floods after becoming separated from its mother and was later raised under human care.

Named after the area where it was rescued, Meghauli is now regularly seen around roads and farmlands in Sauraha. Conservation officials said the rhino occasionally crosses the Rapti river, moves into the Baghmara forest and later returns to the town area.

An attempt was made to relocate Meghauli to the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in March 2024, but the effort failed. Officials said the rhino struggled to adapt, refused to feed normally and repeatedly hit enclosure barriers. It was brought back to Sauraha within four days.

Tourism entrepreneurs in Sauraha say the behaviour is both fascinating and concerning.

Ram Kumar Aryal, a tourism operator involved in conservation activities, said Meghauli’s behaviour reflected the adaptability of rhinos raised in semi-controlled conditions.

“What we are seeing is that even a rhino raised under human care can compete with wild males of a similar age in a natural environment,” Aryal said.

A common refrain now is that rhino movement into human-dominated areas is no longer considered unusual in Chitwan.