GUWAHATI, Sept 3 - In a big boost to long-term rhino conservation in Manas National Park, Jamuna, a translocated rhino, gave birth to a calf in the wee hours today.
Significantly, the birth of a rhino calf in Manas has come after a long gap of 20 months. The previous recorded birth took place in December 2015.
The total number of rhinos in Manas now stands at 29.
�It is a great news for Manas � more so because a calf has been born after a long wait. Both the baby and mother are doing fine,� HK Sharma, Field Director, Manas Tiger Reserve, told The Assam Tribune.
This also marks the second time that Jamuna has given birth to a calf, the previous delivery taking place in 2014. Jamuna � rescued in Kaziranga in 2004 and hand-raised at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) near the national park � was later translocated to Manas in November 2010.
Sarma added that they were expecting three more calves in the coming months.
�The number of male rhinos in Manas had been less than the required, and this explains the lack of births for a long period. But of late, a few juvenile males have entered adulthood, improving the male-female ratio. This is a good development for the rhino�s future,� Sharma said.
Manas, which once used to shelter some one hundred rhinos, saw its entire rhino population decimated during the prolonged period of social unrest during the 1990s. The translocation process to Manas was started in 2006, with Mainao being the first rhino to be rehabilitated in the national park.
On another dimension, for the second time this year, a person was killed inside Manas National Park due to a rhino attack on September 2. The earlier incident took place on April 20, 2017.
