For Rathin Barman, a teacher who turned towards wildlife conservation over 20 years back, the unknown challenges of rescuing animals is exciting. He reflects on his work with rhinos and other animals in Assam.
Rathin Barman: Wherever there are rhinos, there is always a threat of poaching. Rhinos are killed for their horns to be sold in the international market. There is no market for it in Assam locally.
About two decades back we used to lose 50-60 rhinos to poachers every year at Kaziranga National Park. But now the number has almost reached zero. No case of poaching took place in Assam last year. This is surely a big success story for the whole system.
While the enforcement agencies have worked well, we have to remember that you cannot save the rhinos only with guns. Cooperation of people from the surrounding villages is crucial. Poachers don’t come by helicopters, they walk to the forests through villages. Efforts are effective when the local communities work closely with the system.
Disease is another problem that we will have to prepare for in the coming years. Because rhinos are now coming in close proximity to domestic animals we may have more instances of disease transmission.
RB: Yes, I used to teach zoology and wildlife biology earlier. In the teaching profession I felt that everyday was the same. After a point it did not excite me much. In contrast, when I became a full-time wildlife conservationist at Kaziranga, I didn’t know what my next day was going to be like. Everyday there was a new challenge. I came to Kaziranga to start a rescue centre for wildlife animals. We rescued animals under various circumstances and treated them for health problems before releasing them back to the wild.
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I never know what I will be doing the next day and what new circumstances I will be up against. This is why I have been doing this for the last 23 years.
At the rescue centre we have so far handled about 8,000 animals. Out of these over 6,000 animals have been released back into the wild. Seeing an animal return to the forest is the most rewarding part of my work. Just rescuing them is not enough. I feel satisfied when the animal is released into its natural habitat.
RB: At our rescue centre, we are always ready to deal with any animal. It may be an elephant calf that has fallen into a ditch at a tea garden or a tiger that has entered someone’s house. Every situation is different, requiring different strategies and innovative solutions. We can never predict how the rescue will go. Often when we are rescuing animals, it’s not just the animal that we are facing. Rescuing a tiger may also involve dealing with 500 onlookers.
RB: Kaziranga is a flood prone area. While big floods are a problem, no flood is also not desirable for this ecosystem. But excessive flooding has been happening very frequently in recent times because of disturbances in the upstream Brahmaputra.
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Many animals get displaced during these floods. Baby rhinos are often separated from their mothers and once they get separated it is very difficult to reunite them. We raise the baby rhinos before releasing them back to the wild. So far at our centre we have rescued and released 25-30 baby rhinos. We also sometimes release them at new places such as Manas National Park in Assam.
During the mid to the late 1990s we lost all our rhinos at the Manas National Park due to poaching. Many other species went missing too. Now, through the rhino rescue programme at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation, we release the rhinos at Manas National Park in order to rebuild it. This not only saves the animals but the entire ecosystem. Twenty years back there were no rhinos at Manas, but now the number has reached 50.
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The lead image shows an Indian rhinoceros at the Kaziranga National Park in Assam. (Photo by Rathin Barman)
Dr Rathin Barman is Joint Director of Wildlife Trust of India and Head, Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation at Kaziranga National Park in Assam.
