The world is celebrating World Rhino Day 2022. Every year on September 22nd, World Rhino Day is observed to raise awareness about the five rhino species: greater one-horned rhino, Sumatran rhino, Javan rhino, black rhino, and white rhino.
Kaziranga National Park, a World Heritage Site, is home to the world’s largest population of greater one-horned rhinos. It also has the highest tiger population density, the most Asiatic wild buffalo, and the world’s last remaining population of eastern swamp deer, or barasingha.
We are happy to share that “The Rhino Kingdom” has won the Best Wildlife Tourist Destination 🥇 in Outlook Travellers Award 2022. We thank all stakeholders for helping us achieve this feat.@himantabiswa @cmpatowary @assamforest pic.twitter.com/aLIeOzj5AL
— Kaziranga National Park & Tiger Reserve (@kaziranga_) August 25, 2022
The Rhino Kingdom Kaziranga has won the Best Wildlife Tourist Destination in Outlook Travellers Award 2022.
However, poaching is the biggest threat to Rhino. Rhino life is threatened due to deforestation, industrialization, and other human activities. As a result, it is critical to raise awareness about the issue among the next generation.
According to reports, More than 2,300 greater one-horned rhinos prowl the wetlands and grasslands of Kaziranga, comprising nearly 70% of all wild rhinos left in India and Nepal.
The one-horned rhino, the pride of Assam, occupies a special place in the hearts & minds of our people. A major tourist attraction, it forms a part of Assam’s culture.
On #WorldRhinoDay, I reaffirm our Govt’s strong commitment to protect the magnificent animal & its habitat. pic.twitter.com/HcsZjlDTd1
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) September 22, 2022
In the year 2005, The Indian Rhino Vision 2020 initiative was launched. It aimed to achieve a wild population of at least 3,000 greater one-horned rhinos spread across seven protected areas in the Indian state of Assam by 2020.
These seven protected areas are Kaziranga, Pobitora, Orang National Park, Manas National Park, Laokhowa wildlife sanctuary, Burachapori wildlife sanctuary, and Dibru Saikhowa wildlife sanctuary.
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The International Rhino Foundation, Assam’s Forest Department, the Bodoland Territorial Council, World Wide Fund – India, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service are among the organizations involved with this initiative.
The Indian Rhino Vision 2020 (IRV2020) project has officially concluded with the relocation of two rhinos to Manas National Park in Assam, India, in April 2021. The next programme is in the works and will be announced later this year.
On the other hand, in 2021, Assam commemorated World Rhino Day by burning nearly 2,500 one-horned rhinoceros horns in a special ceremony. After weeks of ‘rhino horn reverification’ exercises by the forest department, as announced by Assam Cabinet.
Many rhino poaching cases were reported in the years leading up to 2013 and 2014. These two witnessed the incidents in a decade at the rate of 27 per year. Since then, the numbers have dropped to 17 in 2015, 18 the following year, six in 2017 and 2018, and three in 2019.
The Assam government established a Special Rhino Protection Force in 2019 to combat poaching in Kaziranga National Park. A rhino census in March 2018 revealed a population of 2,413, with 102 in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and 101 in Orang National Park. Manas National Park had 43 rhinos, according to a more recent census.
