Book Excerpt: When Assam seemed unwilling to share its rhinos

A rhino and her calf in Kaziranga, Assam. Photo: iStock

As political and economic turmoil engulfed Assam in the last quarter of the twentieth century, the state’s flagship mega mammal, the great one-horned rhinoceros, became intertwined with the region’s political and cultural agenda. The declaration of Kaziranga as a Reserved Forest in 1905 had been a major step in the protection of this species. The Assam Rhinoceros Preservation Act of 1954 was based on a similar Act passed in the Bengal province before Independence in 1932. Battling many challenges, Kaziranga National Park (KNP) became an exemplary instance of nature conservation in modern India. Once found across the Indus and the Gangetic floodplains, the rhinoceros, along with the lions in the Gir National Park, provided positive stories of the survival of near-extinct animals, largely due to state patronage. By the early 1970s, the rhinoceros was deeply embedded in Assam’s sense of regional pride. Apart from a small number in West Bengal and in Nepal, this species of rhinoceros was now unique to Assam. Behind the success story of rhinoceros conservation, several forces had been at play over the decades, including Assam’s ecological volatilities, regional cultural aspirations, modern conservation science, state support and many shades of electoral politics. The fluvial environment of the Brahmaputra and the expansive grasslands of the valley created a conducive environment; the collective leadership of early foresters, politicians and conservationists created the institutional framework; and an empathetic agrarian social milieu was equally at work to help the park become a success. KNP was not the lone sanctuary, but it had the highest rhino population.

The last two decades of the century saw the rise of a new kind of environmentalism around the rhinoceros, with the decision to translocate some rhinos from Assam to another suitable habitat in the country to safeguard the future of the species. In March 1984, as Assam’s thick cloud of political disquiet slowly began to wane, five rhinos (aged between four and 23 years) from its forests were flown to the Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh. The new habitat was not much different from their original home, being the swampy and often flooded terai grasslands of Uttar Pradesh. Flown in a large Russian cargo aeroplane, accompanied by veterinarians and wildlife conservationists, this extraordinary journey, now largely forgotten, deserves a special place in Assam’s political and environmental history.

The idea of translocating a few one-horned rhinoceroses from the jungles of Assam to a national park in another state had taken shape in the late 1970s. India, Bhutan and Nepal were the exclusive homes for this species of rhinoceros. Estimated to number around 1500 in total, two-thirds of them were to be found in KNP. By the late 1970s, the years of political turbulence in Assam had caused worries about the animal’s future. The Wild Life (Protection) Act of 1972 gave the animal full protection, and an international convention prohibited trade in rhinoceros parts. Legal safeguards and state surveillance, however, could not save the animal from being poached as the state experienced political upheaval. According to official accounts, more than 90 rhinos were killed in 1983, which led an angry Indira Gandhi to write to Saikia, saying she was ‘distressed’ to learn of this increased poaching and asking him to ‘take stern and immediate steps’. Samar Singh, a senior Indian official in the Ministry of Environment, described the situation as ‘alarming’ in early 1984. Earlier, in 1979, a team of international conservationists under the banner of the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Survival Service Commission recommended that given the increasing chances of poaching, epidemic outbreak, shrinkage of living space and food shortage due to the fast spread of exotic invasive species such as water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) and climbing hempweed (Mikania scandens), efforts must be made to find an alternative home for the rhinoceros elsewhere in the country. Action was taken on this quickly. In November 1979, the Indian Board for Wildlife agreed to the proposal and identified several such places within the country. R Schenkel, a global name in rhinoceros conservation, concluded that Uttar Pradesh’s Dudhwa was the ‘most suitable’ for such an exercise. In 1980, preliminary field trials were conducted. Rhinos were tranquilized and shifted to other similar places within Assam.

But Assam was not a cheerful donor. Public opposition to this translocation was clearly visible. Many feared that it was an attempt to deprive Assam of its exclusive position as the home for this animal; they dismissed any ecological arguments for it. When the decision was announced, firebrand Assamese student leaders threatened to ‘sabotage the trucks carrying the rhinos’, and a senior state forest official admitted that he and his colleagues ‘were not happy about the translocation’. In 1982, AASU wrote to Indira Gandhi protesting the idea of translocation. A year earlier, when the Parliament had proposed to amend the Wild Life (Protection) Act of 1972 to make room for translocation, a lawmaker from Assam had protested. Nonetheless, support came from the Assam government, for which the Union government lauded Assam’s chief minister, Hiteswar Saikia, for his ‘wise and farsighted approach in a matter of national importance’.

The Government of India finally airlifted the rhinos, but by this time, Assam’s forested landscapes had undergone a significant transformation. From three game reserves in the 1910s, which were established with the intention to give partial (only hunting of female rhinos was prohibited) protection to the one-horned rhinoceros, Assam came to have several national parks and wildlife sanctuaries by the 1980s—amounting to 5 per cent of her total land. This was possible due to state patronage as well as the increasing role played by conservationists.

Excerpted with permission from The Quest for Modern Assam: A History (1942-2000) by Arupjyoti Saikia@2023Penguin Random House India 

Subscribe to Daily Newsletter :

SUPPORT US

We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.