Rhino in Royal Manas NP
View of a rhino in Royal Manas National Park in Bhuta.. Image credit - Kuensel

At a time when the Royal Manas National Park (RMNP) authority was planning to remove the one-horned rhinoceros from its list of wild animals found in the park, one rhinoceros was caught in a camera in May this year.

A report published on Saturday by Kuensel stated that the rhino was captured multiple times in the camera trap set up for tracking tigers.

According to the report, officials of the Royal Manas National Park said it has been nearly two decades since one of the jewels of the park had gone missing since the early 90s.

The report quoted senior park Ranger Dorji Wangchuk as saying that it was in February 1992 when the record of the last sighting of rhino in the park was excerpted from a diary of one of the retired foresters.

No record revealed or single evidence was sighted thereafter, Wangchuk further said.

Wangchuk held human predation and poaching solely responsible for the extirpation of rhino from its habitat in the park and it surrounding areas.

The report quoted Wangchuk as saying: “Reappearing of the one-horned rhinoceros in its habitat is a welcome news for the people of Bhutan.”

It may be mentioned that one-horned rhino is listed as vulnerable species as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red list.

In order to protect rhino, the authority of Royal Manas National Park plans to continue to implement various activities and one of the activities is smart patrolling and synchronised patrolling along the border with Indian counterpart.

The park authority also reportedly undertakes activities like habitat management through managing grass, saltlick and waterholes on regular basis.

The park authority expects to spot the rhino in camera again when the annual (winter) camera-trapping programme is set up next month, the report said.

‘Save The Rhino’ on its Twitter handle on Saturday uploading an image of the rhino which was captured by a camera stated: “Greater one-horned rhino caught on camera-trap image in Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan, for the first time since locally exterminated in the early 1990s.”

It also tweeted that it may be one of the rhinos in the neighbouring Manas National Park in India, which had gone for a walkout in the Royal Manas National Park Bhutan.