Survey reveals more one-horned rhinos sighted in N Bengal this year

Kolkata: The population of one-horned rhinoceros in Jaldapara and Gorumara in North Bengal has gone up. The findings have come from a recent survey carried out by the department in the two national parks in the state in February.

"This is for the first time when apart from direct sighting we have collected the dung of the animal to estimate the population. We have sent the sample for DNA anlaysis in Hyderabad which will be tallied with that of direct-sighting and the census will be released accordingly. The process will take at least six months but we are sure that the numbers will increase," said state Forest minister Binay Krishna Barman.

About 100 persons, including forest guards, were engaged for the census, along with 18 pet elephants. The earlier census was held in 2015 when 45 rhinos were counted in Gorumara and 214 in Jaldapara.

A source in the Forest department said the number of rhinos have gone up to 237 while that of Jaldapara has increased to 53. "The DNA analysis this year will also help us to come up with the male and female population of the animals separately," a senior official of the state Forest department said.

There have been sporadic incidents of poaching of the animal in the forests. However, the state Forest department have taken some significant measures for conservation of the animal which is evident from the population shooting up.

The state Forest department has started work for developing the third habitat for rhinoceros at Patlakhawa in North Bengal. The third home for the one-horned rhino is being developed for balancing the rhino population that have increased by both at Jaldapara and Gorumara National Park in North Bengal. The Patlakhawa forest has a large wetland.

"We are presently developing the infrastructure that includes boundary of the habitat, grassland improvement watch towers, deployment of security staff, construction of staff quarters , training of staff ," Barman said.

Bengal has the second highest population of rhinoceros after Assam.