The WHO-India launched the Indian Rhino Vision (IRV) 2020 programme to protect and increase the population of one-horned rhinoceros. The Indian rhino helps to maintain biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. In 2008, it became Asia's only large mammal species to be downlisted from endangered to vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. The Indian Rhino Vision 2020 campaign began in 2005. The IRV 2020 project ended in April 2021. The main goal of IRV 2020 was to have 3000 wild rhinos in Assam distributed across 7 protected areas (PAs) by 2020. In this article, we will discuss Indian Rhino Vision 2020 which will be helpful for UPSC exam preparation.

Different Species of Rhinos

Indian Rhino Vision 2020 - Vision

• The program's vision is to increase the total rhino foundation in Assam from around 2000 to 3000 by 2020, with these rhinos distributed across at least 7 protected areas (PA) to ensure the long-term viability of the one-horned rhino population.

Indian Rhino Vision 2020 - Purpose

• The conservation of rhinos in Assam has always faced major challenges and setbacks.
• Concentrating so many rhinos in a single protected area, such as Kaziranga, exposes the species to disaster risks such as epidemics, floods, massive poaching attempts.
• The rhino population in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary had outgrown its carrying capacity. Their numbers had to be reduced in order to protect the species and reduce the increasing human-rhino conflicts.
• Poor law and order, on the other hand, wiped out a significant population of rhinos in Manas National Park during the 1990s.
• Similarly, poaching had wiped out the species in Laokhowa, and Orang was also threatened.

Indian Rhino Vision 2020 - Performance

• The goal of reintroducing 3,000 rhinos has nearly been met, but the animal could only be reintroduced in one of the four planned protected areas.
• The plan to spread the Greater one-horned rhino across four protected areas beyond Kaziranga National Park, Orang National Park, and Pobitora failed to materialise.
• The translocated rhinos aided Manas National Park in regaining World Heritage Site status in 2011.
• Poaching decreased significantly in 2018 and 2019, because of forestry, local, and national government officials coordinating efforts to combat wildlife crime throughout Assam.

Greater One-Horned Rhino

• The greater one-horned rhino lives in riverine (floodplain) grasslands and adjacent woodland in northern India and southern Nepal.
• The greater one-horned rhino is a grazer. When not grazing on land, animals prefer to immerse themselves in water and graze on aquatic plants.
• Gestation lasts about 15-16 months, and mothers have one calf every 2-3 years.
• Except for females with young, greater one-horned rhinos are usually solitary. Males defend their territories haphazardly.
• Asia is home to three rhino species: Greater one-horned (Rhinoceros unicornis), Javan, and Sumatran.
• Poaching for horns and habitat loss are the two most serious threats to Asia's rhinos' survival.
• The five rhino range countries (India, Bhutan, Nepal, Indonesia, and Malaysia) have signed the 'New Delhi Declaration on Asian Rhinos 2019' for the conservation and protection of the species.

Greater One-Horned Rhino

Protection Status

• The IUCN Red List classifies the Javan and Sumatran rhinos as critically endangered, while the Greater one-horned (or Indian) rhino as vulnerable.
• Appendix I lists all three (CITES).
• The greater one-horned rhino is listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.

Greater One-Horned Rhino Habitat

• The species is limited to a few small habitats in the Indo-Nepal terai, northern West Bengal, and Assam.
• Rhinos can be found in Kaziranga National Park, Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Orang National Park, Manas National Park in Assam, Jaldapara National Park and Gorumara National Park in West Bengal, and Dudhwa TR in Uttar Pradesh.

Indian Rhino Vision 2020 - Current Status

• The Indian Rhino Vision 2020 came to an end on April 13, 2021, with the relocation of two rhinos from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary to Manas National Park in Assam. It was the eighth round of rhino translocations under the Indian Rhino Vision 2020.
• The programme is said to have achieved its goal of establishing a rhino population of 3,000 in Assam.
• Rhinos can now be found in four Assam Protected Areas: Pobitora Wildlife Reserve, Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park, Kaziranga National Park, and Manas National Park. However, the plan to spread the rhinos beyond these four areas did not come to fruition.
• In 2017, the programme celebrated its third generation in Manas. Ganga, a female rhino who arrived in Manas in 2007, gave birth to a male calf.
• With the most recent translocation and several births, the Manas population has grown to 42 rhinos.
• Under the translocation programme, Manas National Park received 22 rhinos from other protected areas. The rhino relocation assisted Manas in regaining its World Heritage Site status in 2011.
• The combined efforts of forestry and local and national government officials to combat wildlife crime in Assam resulted in a significant decrease in poaching in 2018 and 2019.

Other Initiatives to Protect Rhino

• The New Delhi Declaration on Asian Rhinos Declaration 2019.
• National Conservation Strategy for Rhinos (2019).
• Recovery Program for Critically Endangered Species (Part of the Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats (IDWH)).

World Rhino Day

• The World Wildlife Fund and several other international organisations observe World Rhino Day on September 22nd each year.
• The day is observed to raise awareness about the threats that five rhinoceros species face in Asia and Africa.

Conclusion

The state of assam in india holds over three-quarters of the world's greater one-horned rhinos. Unfortunately, the species has been driven out of many of the areas where it was once common. Its full recovery requires not only protecting the species where it has survived, but also reintroducing them to places where they have disappeared. The Indian Rhino Vision 2020 (IRV2020) project has officially concluded with the relocation of two rhinos to Manas National Park in Assam, India, in April 2021. There have been both successes and failures over the last 15 years.