Nepal: Nepal Police and Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation made public the arrest of Raj Kumar Praja, Nepal's most wanted rhino poacher and illegal rhino horn trader and INTERPOL's first subject of Red Notice against environmental crime in Nepal, during a press meet on Sunday at Chitwan National Park. Praja was arrested on 30th January 2015 in Wangting Telok city, Malaysia and later deported to Nepal on 8 February. Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) arrested Praja at the airport and sent him to Chitwan National Park on 9 February 2015.

Praja, 31, was directly involved in poaching of 25 rhinos in Chitwan National Park and adjacent forest areas, among them, he had managed to de-horn 20 rhinos while others were left wounded. Besides, he had also sold two more rhino horns obtained from others. Praja is convicted in 6 cases with 15 years of jail sentence and USD 1,000 fine in each of the six cases. There are nine other cases registered against him in Chitwan National Park, where he is currently held in custody for further investigation Praja was on the run since 2004. He was hiding in Malaysia since 2010 with fake identity as Bhakta Raj Giri. Upon the request forwarded by Chitwan National Park through Central Investigation Bureau, INTERPOL had issued Red Notice against him in November 2013. Tikaram Adhikari, the Director General of Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and the Chief Enforcement Coordinator of South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN) expressed his appreciation to all the agencies and individuals including Nepal Army, Nepal Police CIB, INTERPOL NCB Kathmandu, INTERPOL General Secretariat, Informants Networks and WWF Nepal for the facilitation and support throughout the operation in bringing Praja to justice. "The arrest of Praja is a good example of achievement as a result of good coordination among many national and international agencies, we hope for the similar coordinated efforts in the future too to protect our precious wildlife" added Mr Adhikari.