Source : New Kerala, India, 02 Dec '05
By : Syed Zarir Hussain
  

Thanks to some dedicated efforts by wildlife rangers, about 2,000 of the 5,000-pounders today are breathing easy and fast multiplying, thereby posing a challenge to the authorities to give the giant pachyderms enough living space for survival.

In an attempt to increase the rhino map, wildlife authorities are planning to shift some rhinos from the famous Kaziranga National Park and the Pabitora National Park to similar environs in the state.

This in itself speaks volumes for the conservation success story - there was a time not too long ago that forest rangers were worried the beast might become extinct thanks to wanton poaching by hunters. Now, the same people are looking for new habitats to give the rhinos a chance to grow unhindered.

One-horned rhinos once ranged from Pakistan across northern India to Nepal and the Myanmar border, perhaps even into southern China. Today, most live in reserves in India and Nepal’s Royal Chitwan National Park.

The modern-day story of the enigmatic, armoured rhino began a century ago when an intrepid British woman returned utterly disappointed from Assam because she couldn’t see one.

The year was 1905. The woman - Lady Curzon, the wife of the then reformist Indian Viceroy Lord George Curzon, who visited the wilds of Kaziranga in eastern Assam after being told by a British tea planter friend about the presence of the huge vegetarians. She left after a couple of days - disheartened when all she got to see were hoof prints instead of the giant pachyderms frolicking in the wild.

On her return, she persuaded her husband to do something to save this animal from extinction. Lord Curzon set the wheels of British bureaucracy rolling and declared Kaziranga a reserved forest the same year.

Just five rhinos were found in Kaziranga that year. The tropical sanctuary finally attained the status of a national park in 1974.

The 430 sq km Kaziranga National Park is home to the single largest population of the endangered one-horned rhinoceros in the world today against five rhinos a century ago.

According to latest figures, more than 1,600 of the world’s estimated 2,400 rhinos roam the thick savannah grasslands of Kaziranga, 220 km east of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.

Some 400 more of the animals are in different parks and sanctuaries in Assam taking the total number of one-horned rhinoceros in Assam to about 2,000.

“To find the Kaziranga rhinos charging back from the brink of extinction is perhaps one of the world’s biggest conservation success stories,” park director N.K. Vasu said.

“Nobody thought the rhinos would survive with organised poacher gangs hunting down the animal.”

Until a few years ago, the wilds of Kaziranga echoed with sounds of staccato gunfire as the noble beast became the target of poachers.

Gangs killed as many as 600 of the rhinos at Kaziranga between 1985 and 2000.

Organised poachers kill rhinos for their horns, which are made of keratin -- the same protein that covers plain old cow horns.

Rhino horn is believed to have aphrodisiac qualities and is used in traditional Chinese medicine as well as in parts of South Asia to cure fever, stomach ailments and other diseases.

The horn also attracts Middle East buyers who turn them into handles of ornamental daggers. Profits in the illegal rhino horn trade are staggering - a shooter gets about Rs.100,000 ($2,200) for killing the animal, while one kg of the horn fetches up to Rs. 1.5 million ($33,000) in the international market. A full-grown rhino could have horns weighing up to two kg.

Park wardens report a downslide in rhino poaching in the past five years, saying only six of the animals was killed last year.

“A highly effective protection mechanism, better intelligence network, and a proactive role played by local villagers residing along the park, have helped us check poaching in recent years,” Assam Forest Minister Pradyut Bordoloi said.

It’s an evolving chain. Today Kaziranga is not only dubbed as the rhino country but also boasts of elephants, bison, deer, sloth bears as well as an occasional tiger and leopard, besides a large variety of birds.

“A visitor to the park never returns disappointed. There are hardly any tourists who complain of not coming face to face with a wide variety of animals during a safari inside the park,” boasted park ranger D.D. Boro.

So different from Lady Curzon’s experience a hundred years ago!

The success of Kaziranga’s conservation efforts has earned accolades worldwide - the park today is listed as a World Heritage Site, besides receiving several international wildlife awards in recognition of the conservation success story.

And the park, despite facing the wrath of the annual floods caused by the great Asian river Brahmaputra, continues to fight back with a dedicated team of forest guards and rangers putting their heart and soul to keep the sanctuary secured.

“We shall continue to fight and work till our last breath,” said J. Das, a senior forest guard. And this dedicated spirit by the custodians of Kaziranga is what makes the park different from other sanctuaries.