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and avifauna. The park has many
species listed under Schedule I of
India's Wild Life (Protection) Act (rhinos,
elephants, wild water buff aloes, gaur,
eastern swamp deer, tigers, leopards,
clouded leopards, dholes, capped
langurs, golden langurs, Great Indian
Hornbills and perhaps the largest known
population of Bengal Floricans, to name
some), and hosts several endangered
species not found anywhere else in
the world (such as the hispid hare, the
Assam roofed turtle and the pygmy
hog). Fantastic beasts and where to fi nd
them? In Manas, absolutely.
One label that Manas is glad to
be rid of is that of 'UNESCO World
Heritage in Danger', which it wore
between 1992 and 2011. Heavy
poaching during the years of civil
unrest from the late 1980s through
the 1990s had decimated the park's
wildlife. Conservationists who visited
the area immediately following thedark years found that almost all of
Manas's 100-odd rhinos had been
killed, along with most of its swamp
deer and wild buff aloes, and large
numbers of tigers, elephants and a
myriad of other creatures.
"The forests were intact but it was
like there were no animals," recalls
Dr. Choudhury, who began working in
the landscape in 2006. "We used to
get excited if we saw one barking deer
during our fi eld surveys! But things
began to change when the rhinos were
reintroduced. Patrolling was stepped
up and the wildlife, which had been so
terribly harassed over a 20-year period,
got some breathing room."
The park currently has 29 rhinos
(including Jamuna's newborn), with
over 40 per cent having been brought
in under the Indian Rhino Vision 2020
programme of the Government of
Assam – either captured in Kaziranga,
translocated and 'hard released' by theWorld Wide Fund for Nature (WWF
India) and its partners, or rescued,
hand-raised and rehabilitated by
IFAW-WTI under the Greater Manas
Conservation Project.
Of course, the project’s ongoing
wildlife restocking eff orts aren't limited
to rhinos. Thirty-six eastern swamp deer,
for instance, have been translocated
from Kaziranga to the Bansbari
grasslands since 2014, in an attempt
to reestablish a viable population of
this critically endangered barasingha
subspecies. And as we drive deep into
the Panbari Forest Range one morning,
it is because Dr. Choudhury has been
informed that one of the Asiatic black
bears rehabilitated earlier this year has
been spotted near Kheroni Camp with
an injured paw.
The Panbari Range Offi ce has a
memorial by its gate; a sombre black
slab topped by a weathered yellow
tombstone. 'Martyr's Tomb' it reads,
followed by the names of three frontlineSU
BHAMOY BHATTACHARJEE / IFAW-WTIEastern swamp deer enter a pre-release boma following their translocation from Kaziranga to Manas National Park. Some 36 individuals of this
endangered subspecies have been brought to Manas in two batches by IFAW-WTI, the Assam Forest Department and ONGC.