Guwahati, Feb. 10: A rhino translocation programme to help increase the population of the endangered species was postponed on the eve of its launch in Assam for want of the narcotic drug that is used to tranquillise wild animals.

The programme was put on hold after the logistics team that had gone to Nandankanan Zoo in Bhubaneswar to procure the drug discovered that the distributor had changed.

Nandankanan is the only zoo in the country that has been allowed to import the restricted drug, Immobilon.

“We had no idea that the distributorship had changed hands. We had no option but to postpone the programme,” a forest department official said.

It will take at least two weeks to procure the drug from the new distributor.

Details of the translocation programme were kept under wraps due to the risks involved in carrying out such a massive exercise. The mock trials were to be held today at Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and the rhinos translocated to Manas by road.

“This is a big setback for us. Field officials at Pobitora who had been preparing for the programme were very disappointed. They had been waiting for this day,” an official at the wildlife sanctuary said.

A quartet of trained elephants had been brought to Pobitora from Kaziranga for the programme.

The four rhinos that were to be translocated were to be captured in the early hours of tomorrow.

The translocation programme is part of Rhino Vision 2020, which aims to increase the population of the Indian one-horned rhino to 3,000 by 2020 and spread them evenly over at least seven national parks. The logic is not to avoid concentratione of rhinos in a single protected area like Kaziranga because that exposes the species to epidemics, floods and massive poaching.

The forest department has taken up the task with support from the International Rhino Foundation and its partners.