Manas: The three rhinos at the rehabilitation facility at the Manas national park are sniffing the air for the onset of the pre-monsoon showers awaiting the time when tender palatable grasses will once more be abundant in the grasslands.

Meanwhile, their keepers are taking no chances, providing them with food supplements to ensure good health, before they get more accustomed to the wild and are able to deal with its ways.

“This is the driest time of the year and most of the grasses have matured making them unpalatable for the rhinos. To deal with the lean period, the calves are being provided with supplementary food, containing vitamins and milk concentrate.” Rathin Burman of Wildlife Trust of India, said.

“When there is plenty to eat, the supplements would be gradually reduced and then completely stopped,” he added.

The 89-hectare grassland enclosure is situated in the Bansbari range of Manas national park in the north-east Indian Assam state and the project is being run by the Wildlife Trust of India and its partner the International Fund for Animal Welfare in collaboration with the Assam forest department.

On January 29, two hand-raised rhinos were brought to Manas National Park from Kaziranga as part of a plan to reintroduce the species in the park.

The two rhinos were rescued from a devastating flood in Kaziranga in 2004 and were hand- raised at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC). Last year, another hand-raised rhino was shifted to Manas from the Centre.

During the peak of an armed movement for autonomy by the local Bodo tribespeople a decade ago, the entire rhino population was eliminated from the park.

CWRC was set up in the year 2001 in Kaziranga, as one of India’s first multi-species rehabilitation centers in partnership between WTI, IFAW and the Assam Forest Department.