Manas Tiger Reserve, 10 April 2021: Three rhino calves – two females and a male- that were rescued during the 2019 floods have safely been released in Manas Tiger Reserve, the first step in sending them back to the wild.

Rescued by the Assam Forest Department and the IFAW- WTI vets from Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) at Kaziranga, these rhino calves have undergone a protocol of rehabilitation for two years before they were translocated to Manas Tiger Reserve today following the IFAW- WTI commitment of “Bringing Back Manas”.

Two females were rescued from Hatimura (Biswanath- North Bank) and Kuthuri area whereas the male was rescued from Solmara during the Kaziranga floods that hit Kaziranga in July-August 2019.

All three had undergone health check-ups and marking before they were loaded in individual crates for the translocation by the expert team of IFAW-WTI veterinarians led by Head vet Dr. Bhaskar Choudhury, with Dr. Samshul Ali, Manager CWRC and Dr. Daoharu Baro, In- charge MVS -Western Assam.

The convoy from CWRC travelled through 400km overnight and reached Manas Tiger Reserve (MTR) in the early hours today, 10^th April 2021 for the scheduled release of the animals in their dedicated boma, where they will be kept for a stipulated period for habituation before they finally go free.

Following the successful release of the three calves in their boma in Manas, Shri Amal Chandra Sharma, IFS, Director, Manas Tiger Project commented, “The three rehabilitated rhinos’ introduction at the boma in Sidajhar forest camp area has its own importance towards bringing back Manas. The second translocation of rhinos from CWRC to Sidajhar will not only enrich the park’s rhino population as flagship species but also help in the protection of the landscape. With the extensive wildlife protection activity at Sidajhar on the western part of the river Beki, we are hopeful that these rhinos will definitely enrich the population with their offspring in the coming years.”

WTI along with Assam Forest Department and Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) have been working together to ‘Bring Back Manas’, the UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003, whose flora and fauna were affected due to decade long insurgency through the late 1980s and 1990s.

The release of flood-rescued and rehabilitated rhinos into Manas Tiger Reserve is a part of the long-term project of IFAW-WTI with Assam Forest Department (AFD) and Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR), where the translocated rhinos and their progeny together account for 19 of the 44 rhinos in Manas Tiger Reserve.  

Details of rhinos moved:

HATIMURI (Female), 2 Years 9 months rescued from Hatimuri Biswanath on 06 August 2019. Age at the time of rescue:1 year; was found alone from Hatimura, a riverbank of Brahmaputra under the Burhapahar forest range of Kaziranga National Park. Responding to a call, the IFAW-WTI team led by Dr. Samshul Ali visited the site and sighted the rhino calf with injury marks.

KUTHURI (Female) 2 Years 3 months rescued from Kuthuri on 17 July 2019. Age at the time of rescue: 6 months. Rescued from the backyard of a fringe village house at Kuthuri near western forest range of Kaziranga National Park by IFAW-WTI-Assam Forest Department. The calf had to be darted by our veterinary team of Dr. Bhaskar Choudhury, Dr. Samshul Ali and Dr. Daoharu Baro.

SOLAMARA (Male) 1 years 11 months rescued from Solamara on 16 July 2019. Age at the time of rescue: 3 months. The calf was found alone in the flooded fringe landscape and was admitted to CWRC.