Assam's wildlife centre provided aid to 7,000 distressed animals in 20 years

Wild animals like rhino calf or a baby elephant becoming orphans due to floods almost every year or the growing problem of human-animal conflicts in Assam has become a worry over the years.

A rehabilitation centre near the famous Kaziranga National Park, however, has provided succour to more than 7,000 such wildlife in distress since its inception 20 years ago. The Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), a joint initiative of the Assam forest department, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has also successfully sent back 4,490 animals to the wild, which according to the experts, is the most challenging job in wildlife management.

"The CWRC is the only facility of its kind in India to have successfully addressed the welfare and conservation of species like elephants, leopards, rhinos, tigers, clouded leopards, black bears, wild buffalos and many others. Since its inception, the centre has handled 7,397 wild animals belonging to 357 species," the WTI said on Sunday.

The CWRC, set up at Panbari near Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve on August 28, 2002, completed 20 years on Sunday.

"Many rescued animals would have died and some of them would have landed up in zoos, which is lifelong imprisonment for them. Wild animals have the right to get another chance to go back to the wild once they are injured or caught under various circumstances," WTI deputy director and chief of strategy and liaison in the Northeast, Rathin Barman said.

Rehabilitation of the rescued animals, particularly rhino and elephant calves has been another major task in which the CWRC achieved success. The first rhino calf was rehabilitated in Manas National Park and thus the park got its rhino back after the entire population was killed in the late 90s and early 2000 during the insurgency. So far, 21 rhino calves have been rehabilitated in Manas from CWRC and 11 calves have been born to these rehabilitated rhinos in Manas.

"The rhino rehabilitation component of the CWRC has proved to be one of the most successful orphan animal rehabilitation attempts of CWRC and has been a critical conservation success. Elephant calves have been rescued under various circumstances in Assam, such as flood and human-animals conflicts and were later sent to CWRC for further care and rehabilitation. So far 29 rescued elephant calves have been shifted to Manas National Park for rehabilitation. Out of which, 12 elephant calves (41%) could be sent back to the wild. CWRC also rehabilitated rescued Asiatic Black Bear cubs in the past. The successful rehabilitation of rescued clouded leopard cubs by CWRC, which was the first of its kind in the world, was one of the most talked about wildlife rehabilitation success stories," WTI said.

The principal chief conservator of forest and Chief Wildlife Warden, Assam, M.K. Yadava said, “CWRC has become a model now in the field of wildlife conservation. It is because of their service, we succeeded in saving many injured, orphaned and marooned animals, especially during the flood in Kaziranga."

Vivek Menon, Founder and Executive Director of WTI, who was instrumental in establishing the centre said, “The centre has shown how civil society (WTI and IFAW) and governments can work together to bring top science and rehabilitation methods to India and successfully address conservation as well as welfare needs of wildlife."