rhinos and their habitat. In 1959, Edward Pritchard Gee undertook a survey of the Chitwan Valley, and recommended the creation of a protected area north of the Rapti River and of a wildlife sanctuary south of the river for a trial period of 10 years. After his subsequent survey of Chitwan in 1963, he recommended extension of the sanctuary to the south. By the end of the 1960s, only 95 rhinos remained in the Chitwan Valley. The dramatic decline of the rhino population and the extent of poaching prompted the government to institute the Gaida Gasti – a rhino reconnaissance patrol of 130 armed men and a network of guard posts all over Chitwan. To prevent the extinction of rhinos, the Chitwan National Park was gazetted in December 1970, with borders delineated the following year and established in 1973, initially encompassing an area of . To ensure the survival of rhinos in case of epidemics, animals were translocated annually from Chitwan to Bardia National Park and Shuklaphanta National Park since 1986. The Indian rhinoceros population living in Chitwan and Parsa National Parks was estimated at 608 mature individuals in 2015. Reintroduction to new areas Indian rhinos have been reintroduced to the following new areas where they had previously inhabited but became extinct. These efforts have produced mixed results, mainly Due to lack of proper planning and management, sustained effort, adequate security of the introduced animals. In 1984, five Indian rhinos were relocated to Dudhwa National Park — four from the fields outside the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and one from Goalpara. This has born results and the population has increased to 21 rhinos by 2006. In early 1980s, Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam had more than 70 Indian rhinos which were all killed by poachers. In 2016, two Indian rhinos, a mother and her daughter, were reintroduced to the sanctuary from Kaziranga National Park as part of the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 (IRV 2020) program, but both animals died within months due to natural causes. Indian rhinos were once found as far west as the Peshawar Valley during the reign of Mughal Emperor Babur, but are now extinct in Pakistan. After rhinos became "regionally extinct" in Pakistan, two rhinos from Nepal were introduced in 1983 to Lal Suhanra National Park, which have not bred so far. In captivity Indian rhinos were initially difficult to breed in captivity. In the second half