Lucknow, Sep 16 - Encouraged by a substantial increase in the state's rhino population, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to carve out a new Rhino reserve in the Dudhwa National Park along the Indo-Nepal border.

The 27-sq-km electrically fenced area earmarked for rhino rehabilitation in the 1,550-sq-km Dudhwa National Park will soon have a parallel rhino area in another part of the sanctuary.

'Instead of expanding the existing area, we are going for a new locale to beat the problem of inbreeding that was bound to eventually arise under the prevailing circumstances,' Uttar Pradesh's Chief Wildlife Conservator B.K. Patnaik told IANS.

The rhino reserve was created in Dudhwa in 1984 as a part of the state government's bid to bring the rhino back to its original home in Dudhwa, from where the animal had migrated to Nepal.