7 rhinos in 1984 became 53 today, inside Dudhwa’s four-decade conservation story

The rhino population in the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) has increased to 53, according to the fourth rhino census conducted between June 25 and 27. DTR Deputy Director Jagdish R. said the reserve’s rhino reintroduction programme began in 1984 with the translocation of seven founder rhinos from Assam and Nepal to the Kakraha area of the South Sonaripur range.

‘Their population has now grown more than seven-fold and coexists with tigers, elephants, leopards and sloth bears in Dudhwa,’ he said. Uttar Pradesh remains one of only three states in India, along with Assam and West Bengal, to support a wild population of the greater one-horned rhinoceros.

The census exercise was carried out in six hourly shifts each day by 20 teams comprising trained forest personnel and WWF-India staff, who surveyed the reserve atop 20 camp elephants accompanied by mahouts. DTR Field Director H. Rajamohan said the reserve recorded a net increase of five rhinos, despite three recent deaths caused by territorial conflicts and predation.

The latest census recorded 17 adult males, 25 adult females and 11 calves older than one year. Of the 53 rhinos, six are housed in one rehabilitation enclosure, 36 in another, while 11 now roam freely in the wild, significantly improving sighting opportunities for tourists in Dudhwa’s open safari zones.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/by Ankit Srivastava