The greater one-horned rhinoceros, or Indian rhino, has some survival issues in Assam beyond the Kaziranga National Park.
The State’s Forest Department on Tuesday celebrated World Rhino Day at the 78.81 sq km Orang National Park straddling Darrang and Sonitpur districts. Officials said the park was chosen to focus on “conservation success stories” other than Kaziranga.
“Orang has the maximum concentration of rhinos on the north bank [of river Brahmaputra],” said A.M. Singh, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest.
According to the 2018 census, Orang had an estimated 101 rhinos compared to 2,413 in the much larger Kaziranga across the river. Data say Orang had as many rhinos in 1991 before poaching brought down their number to 46 in 1999, around the time the animal was wiped out from two wildlife reserves — the Manas National Park and the Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary.
The rhinos are deemed safer from poaching in the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary west of Laokhowa along the southern bank of the Brahmaputra and about 35 km east of Guwahati. But the sanctuary, referred to as ‘Mini Kaziranga’ for similar features, is running out of space for the herbivore.
Pobitora has an area of 38.81 sq km on paper. But the rhinos are confined to only 16 sq km of primarily grassland where their competitors for food are Asiatic water buffaloes and cattle reared by people in 27 surrounding villages.
Fallow land
At the core of this problem is 11 sq km of ‘khas’ land — government-owned fallow land where no one has property rights — yet to be transferred to the Forest department. Locals have been using the land for farming, thus denying the rhinos the access to Raja Mayong Hill within the notified area of the sanctuary.
“It is a cause of great concern that even after 20 years of the sanctuary notification [1998], a large chunk of land has not been demarcated on ground by the district revenue authority and not handed over to the authorities concerned, thereby violating the provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980,” Jitendra Kumar, the Divisional Forest Officer concerned wrote to the Deputy Commissioner of Morigaon district on April 27.
RTI reply
Mr. Kumar’s letter, a copy of which was received via Right To Information by environment activist Rohit Choudhury, cited a December 2018 Supreme Court order to underscore the need for declaring an eco-sensitive zone around Pobitora.
Morigaon Deputy Commissioner Leena Das did not comment on steps taken by the local administration for clearing the cloud over the khas land.
“Pobitora’s rhino count in 2018 was 102, more than the threshold population of 100 within the space they are confined to. Moreover, weed invasion has affected 10 hectares of the grasslands, leaving the rhinos with less than 16 sq km to feed on,” Pobitora’s Ranger Mukul Tamuli told The Hindu.
“Because of confinement, the genetically disastrous inbreeding has started among the Pobitora rhinos. By not removing encroachment for 20 years, the government probably wants to convey that rhinos of Pobitora are less important than their counterparts in Kaziranga,” Mr. Choudhury said.