Two rhinos—one adult male and one female—were released in the central part of Bansbari range of Manas National Park (MNP) on Tuesday morning.
The rhinos were transported from the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary maintaining strict security and veterinary surveillance protocol, MNP field director Amal Ch Sarmah said.
During the transportation process members from the various teams formed by the Translocation Core Committee (TCC) that includes officials and staff from the Assam forest department, College of veterinary Science, Khanapara, Assam Police, AFPF, WWF-India, WTI, Aaranyak and other organizations accompanied the rhino convoy that covered a distance of approximately181 km to reach Manas around 10:30 pm on Monday, Sarmah said.
He said that this is the eighth round of rhino translocation under the Indian Rhino Vision 2020.
With the release of these two rhinos, a total of 22 rhinos have been translocated to the national park wider the IRV2020 program till date, said the field director.
The rhinos have been released under the supervision of the experts and all the operations for the release was conducted under the guidance of Anindya Swargowari, COD Forest, BTC.
The release operations started from around 7.00 am and the rhinos got finally released to the wild around 7:00 am.
The translocated rhinos are ear notched as per the IUCN/SSC Asian Rhino Specialist guideline for identification and monitoring.
A special team has been tasked in Manas for regular monitoring of the rhinos as per the translocation protocol for Assam.
The Indian Rhino Vision (IRV) 2020 a joint program of Assam Forest Department, World Wide Fund for Nature India (WWF-India), International Rhino Foundation (IRF) and Bodoland Territorial Council in collaboration with many other organizations.
The IRV2020 programme was one of the key factors that helped Manas NP to get back its UNESCO (Natural) World Heritage Site status back in 2011.It can be expected that rhinos’ translocation program at Man, said field director Sarmah.