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Rhinoceros spotted near Bhutan border

— Photo: AP

On the look out: Forest officials in search of the rhinoceros, which strayed from the Manas National Park.

Guwahati: A translocated rhino, which strayed from the Manas National Park on September 1, was spotted at Bogamati in Lower Assam’s Baksa district close to the India-Bhutan border on Friday.

Rhino experts and park officials, who have been trailing the rhino for the past 12 days, hope to tranquillise it by Saturday and take it back to Manas. The rhino, which was spotted at a water hole at Bogamati, is one of the two rhinos that were translocated from the Pabitora wildlife sanctuary to Manas in April.

The radio-collared rhino has been tracked continuously with the help of telemetry devices using Global Positioning System.

The park’s field director, A. Swargiary, told The Hindu that the rescue team was looking for an ideal location to tranquillise it.

“We are looking for an ideal location where we can move the logistics that include a huge crate that would be loaded on to a heavy truck for transporting the tranquillised rhino back to Manas. In the previous locations it was not feasible due to rain and roads not fit for moving these logistics. Now that the rains have stopped we should be able to execute the plan soon,” Mr. Swargiary said.

A team of about 100 people, including officials and frontline staff of the national park, officials and experts of the World Wide Fund for Nature, NGO volunteers, and wild life activists, has been tracking the strayed rhino. Twelve elephants have also been pressed into service as part of the rescue mission to access difficult areas.

The State government formed a “Task Force for Translocation of Rhinos within Assam” in June 2005 for developing a vision and roadmap for long-term conservation of the one horned rhinoceroses.

The task force received immediate support from the WWF and the International Rhino Foundation to undertake activities for the conservation of rhinoceroses in Assam and also to create new population in the State through translocation.

The vision set by this task force was to have a rhino population of 3,000 in the wild in Assam in seven of its protected areas by 2020 from the present population of more then 2,000 in three of its protected areas.

The goal set was to populate the potential rhino habitat areas — the Manas National Park, the Dibru Saikhowa wildlife sanctuary, Laokhowa-Bura Chapori wildlife sanctuary — with a viable population of rhinoceroses through their translocation from Kaziranga and Pabitora.

Manas was chosen as the first protected area to receive translocated rhinos from Pabitora as the task force believed that it would help Manas regain its lost recognition of World Heritage Site.

Manas is currently in the list of World Heritage Sites in danger.

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