No Rhinos Poached In Assam In 2022: How A Team With 22 Officials Achieved This Amazing Feat

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced a piece of positive news about the human-wildlife conflict on January 1.

Sarma said no rhino was poached at Kaziranga, Manas, Orang national parks and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in 2022.

Zero Poaching!

2022 was really special for our rhino conservation efforts. Not a single rhino being poached in 2022 & just 2 in 2021, the gentle giant is now much safer in Assam.

Kudos to @assamforest dept & @assampolice for their sincere efforts to protect the iconic animal. pic.twitter.com/mVIHsD0xFe

¡ª Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) January 2, 2023

Assam recorded zero poaching of endangered rhinos, known for their horns that fetch big money because of their supposed medicinal value, for the first time in nearly 45 years, HT reported.

As many as 191 rhinos were poached in Assam between 2000 and 2021. In 2013 and 2014, 27 rhino deaths each were reported, and in 2020 and 2021, two rhinos each were killed. Before 2022, no poaching of rhinos was last reported in 1977.

Sincere efforts of state departments

Officials lauded the sincere, concerted and coordinated efforts of the state's forest and police departments for zero poaching in 2022.

Special DGP G P Singh posted data on Twitter that showed last year was the first since at least 2000 in which there were no rhino poaching incidents in Assam.

"Anti Rhino poaching efforts have yielded spectacular results. There has been no rhino poaching in Assam in Year 2022. Last poaching was on December 28 2021 at Hilakunda, Kohora in Golaghat district. We would strive to keep the graph flat," Singh tweeted.

A hybrid team that was efficient

To achieve results in this anti-rhino poaching mission, a special task force was formed in 2021 chaired by GP Singh. The task force constituted of 22 senior police and forest department officials.

The chief wildlife warden MK Yadava was also a part of the team. It was formed to coordinate the efforts of both departments on the mission.

Yadava said that the most significant advantage of this combination is that they have inputs from both departments to help locate the poaching activities and stop them.

WWF

After efficiently collecting data from all the past poaching activities, the task force devised an intelligent plan to tackle the issue.

They marked all the entry and exit points used, as well as when, how, and where the poaching happened. They increased patrolling on full moon days when most poachers attacked the rhinos.

Rhinoceros population in India

The Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) is found only in the Brahmaputra valley, North Bengal, and southern Nepal. It has a single black horn that can grow up to 60 cm and a tough, grey-brown hide with skin folds, which gives the animal its characteristic armour-plated look.

The Indian rhinos are listed in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 as an endangered animal. There is an international ban on the trade of rhino horns under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.

BCCL

According to the WWF, there are around 3,700 Indian rhinos in the wild today. Assam's Kaziranga National Park (KNP) alone has 2,613 animals, according to a census carried out in March 2022. There are more than 250 other rhinos in the Orang, Pobitora, and Manas parks.

Rhino horn is a thing of value

Rhinos have been poached for their horn, prized in some cultures.

An Assam Forest Department release in 2021 said, "ground rhino horn is used in traditional Chinese medicine to cure a range of ailments, from cancer to hangovers, and also as an aphrodisiac"; in Vietnam, a rhino horn is considered a status symbol.

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