(IN): 2 Pobitora rhinos to get home in Manas

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Link: http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=jan0208/at07

 

2 Pobitora rhinos to get home in Manas

By Sivasish Thakur

GUWAHATI, Jan 1 — In a move that augurs well for the future of the rhino

and also the conservation prospects in Manas National Park, four rhinos –

two males and two females — from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary would be

translocated to Manas on February 12. The rhinos will join three others who

had been taken to Manas from Kaziranga in the last two years.

 

The decision to translocate the four animals to Manas was taken at the fifth

meeting of the task force for relocation of rhinos. Manas is expected to get

25-30 rhinos in phases by the end of the translocation programme.

 

" The translocation exercise will be preceded by a training of the forest

personnel on February 10 at Pobitora. The rhinos will be captured on

February 11 and transferred to Manas the next day, " Chief Wildlife Warden,

Assam, MC Malakar told *The Assam Tribune*.

 

The translocation is part of the ambitious Indian Rhino Vision 2020 that

seeks to attain a 3,000-strong rhino population distributed over seven

protected areas (PAs, i.e. national parks and wildlife sanctuaries) of

Assam.

 

The exercise assumes critical significance for the future of the rhino, as

85 per cent of the State's rhino population is restricted to a single

protected area in Kaziranga (1,855 as per 2006 census), exposing them to

stochastic risks.

 

Pobitora, the other major rhino-bearing habitat, is also overpopulated,

sheltering a population of 81 in a just 38-sq km area. The ominous signs of

man-rhino conflict are already palpable there.

 

" The population in these two PAs needs to be reduced both to protect the

habitat and to mitigate the increasing man-rhino conflict, as rhinos of

Kaziranga and Pobitora have developed a tendency to stray into agricultural

areas, " Malakar said.

 

The translocation to Manas, a World Heritage Site (in danger) has

implications for the Park's conservation prospects as well. The entire rhino

population of Manas numbering around 100 was decimated during the prolonged

period of social unrest in the 1990s.

 

" Successful translocation to Manas would imply that the security concerns of

the Park have been addressed. The translocation, therefore, is a positive

step forward, " Dr Bibhab Talukdar, secretary general of Aaranyak, a leading

conservation group, said.

 

Dr Talukdar, who is a member of the task force, said that the security in

Manas had improved a lot in recent times, " otherwise the translocation move

would not have been feasible " .

 

The other PAs where translocation would take place in a phased manner are

Laokhowa-Burhachapori-Kochmora sanctuary, Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and

Orang National Park. Of these, Orang already has a sizeable rhino population

but is in a position to achieve its targeted population of around 100.

Laokhowa, too, witnessed a total annihilation of its 50+ rhino population

due to rampant poaching in the 1980s.

 

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