Jim Corbett National Park to Welcome Assam’s Pride

NEW ADDRESS FOR KAZIRANGA RHINO

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The ‘Jim Corbett National Park’ which has been attracting wildlife lovers and tourists for the Royal Bengal Tiger, will have new guests. Over a dozen of rhinos from the ‘Kaziranga National Park’ will be sent to the ‘Corbett Park’ in Uttarakhand.

The Uttarakhand Wildlife Advisory Board recently approved a proposal for the reintroduction of one-horned rhinos on an experimental basis in the ‘Corbett Tiger Reserve’.

“Apart from the Royal Bengal Tiger, the ‘Jim Corbett National Park’ is going to be home to rhinoceros as well. The rhinoceros will be procured from either Assam or West Bengal. In the first phase, over one-dozen rhinos from Kaziranga will be translocated to the Corbett Park,” a source in the State Forest department said, adding that the terrain and environmental conditions of the ‘Corbett Tiger Reserve’ are suitable for the one-horned rhinos.

The Uttarkhand government has already written to the Ministry of Environment and Forest for the translocation clearance. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat will also write to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal with a request to send rhinos to the ‘Corbett Tiger Reserve’ at the earliest.

Kaziranga is the largest habitat in the world for the one-horned rhinos. According to the 2018 Census, the park has a population of 2,413 one-horned rhinos.

Way back in 1984, two male and three female rhinos were transported from the Pobitara Wildlife Sanctuary to the Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh.

“Since the translocation programme was a big success and the Dudhwa National Park now has 30 one-horned rhinos, the Uttarakhand government is now serious to introduce rhinos in the Corbett Tiger Reserve,” the source said.

Wildlife scientists and activists said there would be no conflict between tigers and rhinos in the Corbett Park. Tigers normally don’t attack adult rhinos. There are no reports of conflict between tigers and rhinos in the ‘Kaziranga National Park’

Also Read: Kaziranga National Park (KNP) Reopened; Rhino Killing Falls

Also Watch: Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma addresses media ahead BJP Booth Committee President’s Conference