Conservation of rhinos in Nepal has been a success story. In the late 1960's, their numbers had fallen to a mere 100. The situation wasn't much better elsewhere: the world population of the species totalled to about 600 at those times.
Thanks to effective protection measures taken by WWF and the governments of Nepal and other countries, their numbers started rising. In 2000, Nepal already had over 600 rhinos, and the total for the world had topped 2,100.
The current insurgency problem in Nepal has taken a heavy toll among rhinos with under 400 animals left today. It could've been much lower but for the sustained efforts of WWF, Nepalese government and local people in villages around national parks to carry out anti-poaching activities.
Counted every six years
The Rhino count is an operation where scientific accuracy is combined with endurance and skills of the men (and tame elephants) who do the field work, combing the complete terrain to count the inhabitants - with no jungle too dense to enter and no river too mighty to cross.