Rescued in 2016, eight rhino calves finish a year in rehab
Fewer animals got killed in Kaziranga National Park this year than in 2016 because a swollen Brahmaputra unusually took four days to inundate the 434 sq km wildlife preserve. The river did not give much time in July last year, flooding almost 80% of the park and killing nearly 450 animals, including 26 rhinos.
Eight rhino calves less than six months old were lucky to survive and be rescued. On Monday, they completed a year at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation, an animal orphanage near Kaziranga.
The 17-acre rehabilitation centre was founded in 2002 as a joint venture by the Assam forest department, International Fund for Animal Welfare, and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).
“The 2016 flood was probably the worst to hit Assam in a decade. These eight calves, the eldest about 18 months old now, were among 100-plus wild animal emergency cases we handled,” CWRC in-charge and WTI director Rathin Barman told HT.
Rescued rhino calves are initially hand-raised and moved to a simulated jungle within CWRC where their health and instincts are monitored before they are released in the national park.
The average age at which a rhino calf is rehabilitated is four years. A one-horned rhino lives up to 40 years in the wild.
Kaziranga’s divisional forest officer Rohini B Saikia said the park took longer to inundate this year, enabling more animals to flee to higher grounds. “Of the 107 that died this year, seven were rhino calves. One calf was rescued from the Burapahar range of the park,” he said.
That calf, four months old, is being raised at CWRC, which has another calf rescued in 2015.