Days after the successful translocation of old rhino calf Purabi, around one year old, from Kaziranga to Manas, the Assam forest department in collaboration with the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) i

’’We have been rescuing rhino calves at Kaziranga in various circumstances and most of them are now successfully hand raised at the CWRC. At due course of time, all these calves go back to the wilderness again’’

A female rhino calf – Purabi – on Friday was translocated to Manash National Park (MNP) from Kaziranga National Park (KNP) by the Assam Forest Department to join an orphaned rhino calf being hand–reared in MNP.

Guwahati: One more translocated rhino was poached in Manas National Park in western Assam bordering Bhutan Himalayas.

Guwahati: One more translocated rhino was poached in Manas National Park in western Assam bordering Bhutan Himalayas. Forest officials informed that the poachers cut away the horn of the animal after killing it in Kahitema Beat of Bansbari Range of the Park on Tuesday.

It happened to be fourth translocated rhinos to be poached in Manas Park that is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So far 22 rhinos have been translocated to Manas National Park from other protected areas of Assam as part of the India Rhino Vision 2020 programme.

Rhinos in Assam are back in the cross-hairs of poachers. Following a lull of hardly a month towards the end of 2012, the poachers have returned to Kaziranga National Park, gunning down seven rhinos in the current year. That makes it one rhino killed every week there alone. And two other rhinos have been killed elsewhere in the state.

"Yes, incidents of poaching have gone up in the past few weeks," said Assam forest and environment minister Rockybull Hussain. "What is alarming is that while earlier it was criminals and smugglers who were involved in poaching of rhinos, recent incidents have revealed the involvement of armed militant groups."

The Rhino Task Force set up by the state government to improve security in rhino inhabited areas of the state has reaffirmed its target to attain 3,000 wild rhinos by 2020 in the face of the ongoin

After a lot of flip-flops, the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has once again agreed "in principle" to take over the service of water supply from the public health engineering department.

Assam, famed for its national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, faced one of its worst years in wildlife management as it lost an estimated 800 animals, including one-horned rhinos, during 2012.

Among the positives in the wildlife sector was a healthy population of Royal Bengal Tiger in Kaziranga National Park with 114 animals captured by the camera trapping method.

The century-old one-horned Asiatic rhino habitat in Terai Arc is turning into rehabilitation zone for the threatened species.

Enumeration of wild elephants has been carried out in the State like the enumeration of rhinos and tigers. But enumeration of wild elephants is different from that of rhinos and tigers.