The rhino calves in the special enclosure at Manas National Park. Telegraph picture

Jorhat, July 4: Dwimalu, the male rhino calf at Manas National Park, has happily accepted his new companion, Purabi.

Both are now fed together and wallow cosily in the mud, triggering hope among conservationists.

“It is a very positive development. Dwimalu will now be less attached to humans which will help when they are released in the wild,” Bhaskar Choudhury of the Wildlife Trust of India told this correspondent over phone from Manas today, where the duo are being hand-raised in a special enclosure.

Dwimalu’s mother was shot dead by poachers in April this year when he was only 10 days old. Since then, he has been nurtured at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) mobile centre at the park.

Purabi, nearly a-year-old, was shifted to Manas from the CWRC near Kaziranga a few days back as company for Dwimalu, who was in trauma after witnessing his mother being shot dead in front of him. Purabi also lost her mother to floods at Kaziranga.

“Dwimalu was a bit excited and aggressive initially when Purabi was released in his enclosure at Manas. However, both started mingling from the next day,” Rathin Barman, deputy director of WTI said.

He said Purabi had no problem adjusting to her new environment as she was accustomed to sharing space with five other calves at the CWRC near Kaziranga.

“It was Dwimalu who was under stress and had not mingled with other rhinos earlier. He was more at home with his caretakers,” Barman said.

Choudhury said the bonding between Dwimalu and Purabi would help both enjoy each other’s company and have less attachment with the caretakers. “The duo are housed in a 400 square foot enclosure but will be shifted to a new and larger one shortly,” he said. Both the rhinos will be released in the wild after three years.

Dwimalu’s mother Hainari was the first translocated rhino to have given birth at Manas.

She was the 17th of 22 rhinos translocated to the park from Kaziranga and Pobitora wildlife sanctuary since 2006 under the India Rhino Vision programme, which aims at attaining a population of 3,000 wild rhinos in Assam by 2020.

It is a joint programme of the Assam forest department, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) and International Rhino Foundation. The programme aims at securing the long-term survival of wild one-horned rhinos in the state by expanding their distribution to all protected areas. There are 25 rhinos at present in Manas.