Elephants, mahouts and 3 days: how India counts its rarest rhinos

The census exercise to count rhinos at Dudhwa Tiger Reserve 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, over three days between June 25 and 27.

The fourth rhino census found the reserve’s rhino population had increased to 53, recording 17 adult males, 25 adult females and 11 calves older than one year. 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.

Survey teams searched the reserve’s two Rhino Rehabilitation enclosures extensively, including dense grasslands and marshes, to track eight rhinos aged 10 to 15 years that had been released to improve genetic diversity and reduce inbreeding.

The reserve’s rhino reintroduction programme began in 1984 with seven founder rhinos translocated from Assam and Nepal to the Kakraha area, and the population has since grown more than seven-fold, coexisting with tigers, elephants, leopards and sloth bears.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/by Ankit Srivastava