Hope at the Spring

Preparation to release of translocated rhinos

Two  female rhinos Faguni and Asha have been released in the central part of Bansbari range of Manas National Park during wee hours yesterday 1st March 2020. The rhinos were transported overnight from the Kaziranga National Park with strict security and veterinary surveillance as per the protocol. During the transportation process members from the various teams formed by the Translocation Core Committee (TCC) that incudes officials and staff from the Assam Forest Department, Assam Police, Assam Forest Protection Force, WWF-India, Wildlife Trust of India, Aaranyak and other organizations accompanied the rhino convoy that covered the distance of approximately 260km overnight to reach Manas around 2.30am this morning.

The team arrived midnight at Manas NP

This is the 7^th round of rhino translocation under the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 and with this 2 females released this morning a total of 20 rhinos have been translocated to Manas NP under the IRV2020 program to date.

The rhinos have been released by under the supervision of the experts and all the operations for the release was conducted under the guidance of Mr. Anindya Swargowari, Council Head of Department of  Forest, Bodoland Torrial Council. The release operations started from around 7.00am and the rhinos got finally released to the wild around 8.15am. 

The release site preparation 

The translocated rhinos are ear notched as per the IUCN/SSC Asian Rhino Specialist guideline for identification and monitoring. A special team has been tasked in Manas for regular monitoring of the rhinos as per the translocation protocol for Assam.

The Manas park authorities take the opportunity to thank all the people of Assam and the donors of the IRV2020 program as well the Government of Bodoland, Assam and India for helping revive the rhino population in the park. 

The Indian Rhino Vision (IRV) 2020 a joint program of Assam Forest Department, World Wide Fund for Nature India (WWF-India), International Rhino Foundation (IRF) and Bodoland Territorial Council in collaboration with many other organizations.

The IRV2020 program was one of the key factors that helped Manas NP to get back its UNESCO (Natural) World Heritage Site status back in 2011. It can be expected that rhinos’ translocation program at Manas NP will also contribute to the mixing of genes from individuals from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and Kaziranga National Park populations and set up a healthy and breeding population of rhinos for the future of the species. This has also contributed to the overall development of park including tourism and transboundary cooperation between India and Bhutan.