Indian Rhino Vision 2020

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Recently, the ambitious Indian Rhino Vision 2020 (IRV2020) has come to a close with the release of two rhinos in Assam’s Manas National Park transported from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary.

About Indian Rhino Vision 2020

• IRV 2020 was designed by Rhino Task Force 2005.
• Aims
  • To increase Assam’s rhino population to 3000 by 2020, which was done by wild-to-wild translocation from Kaziranga National Park and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary to Manas and Dibru Saikhowa National Parks as well as Laokhowa and Burachopari Wildlife Sanctuaries.
  • To reduce the risk to the rhino population, mainly from poachers by spreading the population in multiple parks with enough habitats to encourage population growth.
  • To secure the long-term survival of wild rhinos in Assam by expanding their distribution to reduce risks like disease, in-breeding depression and mass mortality.
• It is a unique programme where the government partnered international, national and local organisations for the conservation of the rhinos.
• Under it, Manas has received a total of 22 rhinos from other protected areas.
  • Assam had about 2,000 rhinos when IRV2020 began in 2005.
• The rhino census could not be conducted in 2020 because of Covid-19 restrictions which also delayed the IRV by a year.
• Significance
  • The translocated rhinos helped Manas National Park get back its World Heritage Site status in 2011.
    • Manas, in focus for the near-extinction of the pygmy hog, lost the tag it received in 1985 along with Kaziranga from UNESCO.
  • It is also expected to contribute to the mixing of genes from individuals from Kaziranga and Pobitora and set up a healthy, breeding population of rhinos for the future of the species.
  • The translocation and e-establishment of a breeding population has made immense contribution to the conservation of the species.
• The plan to introduce or reintroduce the rhino in three protected areas (Laokhowa, Burachapori Wildlife Sanctuary and Dibru-Saikhowa National Park) did not work out for reasons still not known.
• Now, the IRV2020 is believed to have achieved its target of attaining a population of 3,000 rhinos in Assam.

                                                                                                      (Image Courtesy: IRF)

Rhinos in India

• Only the Greater One-Horned Rhino is found in India which is also known as the Indian rhino and is the largest of the rhino species.
• Features
  • It is identified by a single black horn and a grey-brown hide with skin folds.
  • They primarily graze, with a diet consisting almost entirely of grasses as well as leaves, branches of shrubs and trees, fruit, and aquatic plants.
• Threats
  • Habitat loss and fragmentation
  • Poaching (especially for their horns and hide)
  • Reducing population density
  • Decreasing genetic diversity
• Protection
  • IUCN Red List: Vulnerable.
  • CITES: Appendix I.
  • Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule I.
• Other Conservation Efforts
  • New Delhi Declaration on Asian Rhinos 2019: Signed by India, Bhutan, Nepal, Indonesia and Malaysia to conserve and protect the rhinos.
  • National Rhino Conservation Strategy 2019: Launched to conserve the greater one-horned rhinoceros.
  • Project to create DNA profiles of all rhinos by the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
• Assam accounts for its largest population in India and had at least five rhino-bearing areas till the 1980s.
  • Though rhino numbers in the state have grown from 2000 in 2005 to over 2200 in 2009, more than 90% of these live in just one Protected Area, which is the Kaziranga National Park.
  • Better conservation efforts helped maintain the population of the one-horned herbivore in Kaziranga, Orang and Pobitora.
  • However, encroachment and poaching wiped the animal out of Manas and Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary.

                                                                                         (Image Courtesy: MOI)

Source: TH