Initial Days:: One Glorious Decade at Manas National Park

I have completed one decade at Manas National Park. I am hereby sharing some glimpses of experience from initial days.....

                              Tracking Rhinos with Other Field Staff at Manas

It is a very difficult task to track reintroduced animals in a novel environment. Moreover,  if animals released in a dense grassland habitat like Manas NP, Assam, India. Grassland habitat covered approximately  44% area of Manas NP and Which is more suitable for large herbivores like Rhino, Elephant, etc.

                               Released Rhinos at Manas National Park

First, two male rhinos were introduced in Manas NP on 12th April 2008. I still feel the reverberation of the first two released rhino's joyous moment at Manas NP.  After release, everybody left. I was then the main technical person to track those two odd rhinos within 500 square km area.  During that time hardly 1% of frontline staff had knowledge of rhino behavior and nobody knows the telemetry system. So it was a great challenge ahead of me to teach each forest guard about rhino's behavior, the radio-telemetry system as well as rhino identification methods.                                  

But they were very reluctant to learn because I was younger than them and not a forest officer. I started the journey early in the morning inside the park and returned late afternoon and sometimes at night into our camp which was 22 km away from Manas NP.  Sometimes I requested forest staff to prepare my lunch at their camp's kitchens but hardly anyone agreed to accept my request. So sometimes I had to return with an empty stomach till I reached the bazaar area.                                  

Although it was a very tedious process I never gave up. I shared the radio-tracked movement of rhinos every week along with their photographs. Sometimes I kept tracking rhinos till midnight with guards, shared my dry fruits and biscuits with hungry guards, and the last drop of my drinking water. Gradually, the frontline staff felt my importance among them. They showed interest in the rhino and tracking process. But it took more than 2 years to accept me and the entire process.

I would like to share with you the near future.

Rhino Monitoring Team Ready to Went for Search Operation