Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh, third home of the reintroduced Great Asian one-horn rhinos in the country, has shown the way to combat the menace with its unique ID-based monitoring. The largest of the Asian Rhinos, the Indian Rhinoceros, are found in the reserve.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has classified the Greater One-horned rhinoceros, as “vulnerable”, with its populations in Nepal and parts of northeast India on decline.
Like in case of the tigers in various reserves, Dudhwa has for the first time come up with the concept of awarding Unique Identification Number (UIN) to its 28 rhinos on the basis of which day-to-day monitoring would be stepped up. The park sharing more than 100 kms of unfenced border with Nepal is vulnerable to poachers.
“The system that is expected to be completed within a week will make monitoring more scientific and effective,” felt Shailesh Prasad, Field Director. The rhinos differ in the appearance of their snout and back, on the basis of which individual photography of the rhinos have been done.
The rhinos would henceforth be tracked daily on the basis of their UIN and six patrolling elephants would be deployed for the purpose. “The UIN will help us specifically identify them in the process of monitoring. In case a rhino bearing a particular number is not sighted for 2-3 days, it will instantly come to our notice and search operations would begin to locate the missing animal,” added Prasad.
Rhino introduction to Dudhwa began with the translocation of a seed population of seven including five females from source population Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam Shukla Phanta Reserve in Nepal, beginning from 1984. Today, it boasts of a favourable sex ratio.
Of the 28 rhinos in Dudhwa, there are seven males and 15 females besides six calves. The rhino habitat in Dudhwa is divided into six grids of about 6 sq kms each, covering a total area 29 sq kms. In sharp contrast in North Bengal, regarded as second natural habitat to the species, the sex ratio stands skewed at more than three males for one female, resulting in rising incidents of in-fighting and straying.
“This thriving population of rhinos in the reserve coupled with the common border it shares with Nepal has made it particularly vulnerable to poaching after tiger,” said FD Dudhwa. The issue even figured prominently at the recent Global Tiger Recovery Programme.
Program Director of the Global Tiger Initiative Keshav Verma also minced no words in stating that India needed to take lessons from the killings of rhinos in South Africa. “Three are being killed there every day for their horns. The price of rhino horns even outshines the price of gold in the black market,” he said. Rhino poaching is being carried out by sophisticated criminal syndicates who are smuggling these horns to Asia.
“Such increasing threats have made it all the more relevant for us to devise ways to curb the menace,” pointed out Prasad. Considering the cross border vulnerability of National Park such systematised monitoring is likely to aid in anti-poaching, he added.
