Protecting precious rhinos, Assam’s way

Assam’s conservation history of wildlife achieved another milestone last year with no-poaching incidence of one-horned rhinoceros  in all forest reserves thanks to hard laws, efficient forest staff supported by Assam police and increased public awareness in the last few years. The State realized the record in 2022 as well for the first time since 1977, when the responsible agencies succeeded in preventing the poaching of rhinos. Next year, one rhino was poached and two fell victims in 2024, following which ‘Operation Falcon’ was launched. The single horn rhinos,  often killed by poachers to take away the horn, are believed to have aphrodisiac value, which may fetch them a few hundreds of thousands of bounty in the illegal wildlife market. Kaziranga National Park & Tiger Reserve (KNPTR), an UNESCO world heritage site, gives shelter to nearly  2,700 rhinos. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma recently explained that no poaching of rhinos in Kaziranga was maintained for over 730 days (since February 2024 till date).

Once Assam used to lose 27 rhinos to poachers (precisely in 2013 and 2014) and the relentless murder of the precious animals instigated the conservationists as well as millions of wildlife lovers  to raise a strong voice against its killings. Facing the heat, the government started adopting  brutal laws against the poachers along with strengthening ground staff inside the protected forest areas as well as increasing surveillance and public awareness in fringe localities of every forest reserve. Needless to mention is that common people of Assam, irrespective of their political, social and ethnic differences, maintain a strong will to protect the rhinos.

Native to the Indian subcontinent, the single-horn rhinos are listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 and the giant animals are recognized as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Moreover, the international trade of rhino horns is banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).  So the guidelines empower forest rangers to use even harsh laws to protect the grass-eating pachyderm, which has a global population around 27,000 individuals (most of them are two-horned rhinos). The poaching of rhinos in South Africa even crosses 400 annually. Now the decrease in rhino poaching in India and Nepal (it supports 750 single-horn rhinos), the pressure mounts on African countries to feed the demand of horns (grown by both males and females after attaining six years) in various Asian countries like China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, etc, where the people adore it as black ivory.

On the occasion of World Rhino Day 2024, Assam government destroyed nearly 2,500 rhino horns seized and also stored by the authorities from the native forest reserves, where around 100 rhinos face natural deaths annually. The initiative was taken to counter the common belief that rhino horns are useful for increasing sexual power. The veterinarians always argue that rhino horns comprise the same protein that constitutes the formation of hair and fingernails, and they do not possess any quality for sexual stimulation.  The same year witnessed a massive wave of flood in  Kaziranga by the water from the swollen Brahmaputra river on its northern border. A large part of the forest reserve with 1,300 square kilometre area was inundated resulting in the drowning of 13 rhinos along with a large number of other wild animals.  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also appreciated the State government for preventing rhino killings in Kaziranga and other forest reserves in 2025 by strengthening wildlife protection and also promoting sustainable tourism in the region. PM Modi on 18 January 2026 performed Bhoomi Pujan for the Kaziranga elevated corridor project, which is termed as a landmark infrastructure initiative to ensure the wildlife safety against the movement of vehicles on the elevated National Highway-715 (formerly NH-37) through Kaziranga. Once completed the project, the vehicles will run above without disturbing the traditional wildlife movement  below. It is  expected to reduce killings of accidental deaths to wildlife while crossing the highway (precisely during night hours) and also  enhance the road connectivity with the eastern Assam localities. Hope for the best for wildlife conservation and also much south after developments in the region!

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