Behind the Kaziranga protest in the Assam news: the rhino count, the 1954 Act and Indian Rhino Vision

Background

Assam's current news includes a court case that began with a protest over a hotel project next to Kaziranga, so the conservation record of that park is worth knowing. Assam holds about 80 per cent of the world's greater one-horned rhinos, and its own count rose from about 1,500 in the 1980s to more than 4,014. Kaziranga National Park alone had 2,613 rhinos as of 2022, and the way it is guarded is described as the Kaziranga Model. Four laws stand behind this work: the Assam Forest Protection Act, 1891, the Bengal Rhinoceros Preservation Act, 1932, the Assam Rhino Protection Act, 1954 and the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Assam amended the last of these in 2009, so a poacher caught a second time can now be jailed for life. A programme named Indian Rhino Vision 2005 carries the task of settling the animal in a wider set of homes. Habitat has grown too. Orang National Park gained more than 200 square kilometres, 12.82 square kilometres was taken back at Laokhowa-Burachapori Wildlife Sanctuary, and two protected areas were notified fresh, Siknajhar National Park and Poba Wildlife Sanctuary. To show zero tolerance for poaching, 2,479 rhino horns were burned.