Greater One-horned Rhino Estimation - The Successful Completion of the One-Horned Rhino Estimation in Assam

Implementation to preserve and promote an endangered species is important; so is mapping the progress of our plans to know how far we've come and how must we proceed. This article, by Amit Sharma and Somreet Bhattacharya, shares the successful account of estimation of the Greater one-horned Rhino population in the national parks and sanctuaries of Assam. Amid varying challenges, the WWF India team with support from the Govt. and Forest officials of Assam, undertook this task and came back with favourable results and a hope for the future of these animals.

- Amit Sharma and Somreet Bhattacharya

The Greater one-horned Rhino is considered the most amphibious of all the rhino species. To count its numbers at home is no easy task. But the forest department of Assam and naturalists from WWF India undertook this month-long exercise. While factors such as the weather or when the area is teeming other wild animal species made the task time-consuming, it was accomplished successfully. Interestingly, drones were used for the verification count for the first time.

A rhino count requires boots on the ground throughout the process, during which the teams have to tread through the grasslands and forest counting individual rhinos carefully.

Counting rhino numbers is a massive exercise that is executed after detailed planning and arrangements.

Counting rhino numbers involves the entire Protected Area to be divided into enumeration blocks; the ground conditions determine the sizes and shapes of the blocks. For analysing the performance of the population over the years, the blocks are kept uniformly.

Each enumeration block is traversed in a forward-moving pattern and each rhino individual encountered is recorded in a pre-designed format. It is done in a zig-zag path to maximise the coverage of the area in an attempt not to miss any individual and avoid a double count of a single individual. The enumeration team is not only made up of people from the forest department, but an opportunity is also provided to people from conservation NGOs, researchers and naturalists to make the exercise an inclusive one.

For the WWF India team from the Brahmaputra Landscape, the estimation exercise began early - after a series of meetings with the forest officials for planning the estimation exercise. While tracks were covered on the elephant's back, a part of the area was negotiated on foot.