Sanctuary | Conservation Action
with a newborn calf, spotted in a
clearing by an anti-poaching patrol just
about 40 minutes prior.
As we made tracks towards Mahal
Camp, Dr. Choudhury received a
congratulatory call from H. K. Sarma,
the Field Director of Manas. Jamuna,
you see, had been brought to the
national park under the Greater Manas
Conservation Project. Rescued from
Baghori, Kaziranga, during the annual
monsoon fl oods in 2004, she was hand-
raised at IFAW-WTI and the Assam
Forest Department's Centre for Wildlife
Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC)
before being released into the Bansbari
Range in November 2010. All three
female rhinos rehabilitated into Manas
that year – Mainao (now deceased),
Ganga and Jamuna – have birthed two
calves each in the wild.
"It's an extremely happy occasion for
us," Mr. Sarma declared; "this is after all
the fi rst rhino born in Manas in nearly
two years! The long gestation period ofrhinos [up to 18 months] is one factor
of course, but we also lost several
mature bulls to poachers some years
ago. With better protection in place we
can now be hopeful of more births on a
regular basis."
One creature that isn't quite
sharing in the climat de réjouissance is
Jamuna's elder calf, born in 2014, who
has received clear indication that her
mother wants her to strike out on her
own. Over the next few days though,
we receive reports from patrolling
teams that she is still with Jamuna.
Maybe she'll get to be a calf for a little
while longer.
Of the newborn we catch but the
barest grey glimpse on that early
September day, the day of its birth.
The elephant grass has grown tall and
dense over months of heavy rain – so
much so that looking down at times,
one might, having lost sight even of the
elephant one is astride, believe oneself
skimming the alluvial grasslands on amagic carpet, above angry mum and
bleating calves.
A rodeo clutch of the harness rope
both brings me, and saves me from
being brought, swiftly down to earth.
"Keep a tight grip on the rope,”
Dr. Choudhury had warned me earlier;
“it may just save your life."PART II: UNDER
THE TABLECLOTH
Manas wears many labels: national park,
Project Tiger reserve, elephant reserve,
biosphere reserve. Since 1985, it has
also been a UNESCO-designated World
Heritage Site, an acknowledgement that
it is one of the most biodiversity-rich
areas on the planet.
An exceptional variety of vegetation
(alluvial grasslands to savannah
woodlands; mixed moist and dry
deciduous jungles to sub-Himalayan
semi evergreen forests) forms the
bedrock of a cornucopia of wild faunaGOBINDAGARH/ASSAM FOREST DEPARTMENTJamuna with her newborn calf, her second, in the Narenga grassland in the Bansbari Range. Jamuna was rescued during the 2004 Kaziranga fl oods,
hand-raised and subsequently rehabilitated into Manas National Park in 2010.