Among the 292 rhinoceroses, 179 were adults, 45 subadults and 68 calves, the report said.
Kolkata:
Jaldapara National Park in West Bengal’s Alipurduar district has registered an increase of 55 one-horned rhinoceroses in the past three years, bringing the current workforce to 292, a senior forest department official said Thursday.
The number of rhinoceroses was 237 in 2019, and the national park was adding 18-19 rhinoceroses to its population each year, Chief Wildlife Warden Debal Roy told PTI, citing the department’s recently released rhino census report.
Among the 292 rhinoceroses, 179 were adults, 45 subadults and 68 calves, the report said.
The counters found 101 males, 134 females, while they could not confirm the sex of 57 other herbivores.
In 2019, there were 130 adults, 57 sub-adults and 50 calves in the forest. The census took place after a three-year hiatus.
The national park was divided into 55 blocks for the counting exercise that took place on the field on March 25 and 26, and each team consisted of four to six members. The teams consisted of forest personnel, guides, NGOs and members of the forest management committee of the local population.
A total of 450 people were involved in the count.
Two rhinoceroses were spotted outside the counting zone — a sub-adult in the Nilpara range who returned to the Hasimara battle on March 27 and another sub-adult in the Patlakawa forest who returned to the Sisamara battle on March 29, it said. the forest officer.
The National Forest Area recorded 40 rhino births from February 16, 2019 to March 25, 2022.
Forty-six deaths, including poaching, were also recorded during that period, the forest department’s report said.
“The habitat is conducive to the one-horned rhinoceros and several steps through the department, to increase forest cover, to stop poaching, to sensitize the local population in adjacent areas of the forest has led to this increase. But we have to go continue the work and reduce the number of deaths,” said another forest official.
Like Assam’s Kaziranga, Jaldapara is known as the habitat of one-horned rhinoceroses in West Bengal.
