Guwahati, Dec. 22: Assam is finally set to start its ambitious rhino translocation project with the forest department acquiring the mandatory import licence for the immobilising drug, Ethorpine.
“Import procedures for the immobilising drug have been completed for the programme,” a senior official of WWF coordinating the programme told The Telegraph.
The Rhino Vision 2020 translocation programme is being implemented by the department of environment and forests and is being supported by WWF-India, International Rhino Foundation and other international organisations.
The principal aim of the programme is to attain a population of 3,000 wild rhinos in Assam and to populate the potential rhino habitat areas of Manas, Dibru-Saikhowa, Laokhowa-Bura Chapori wildlife sanctuary through translocation from Kaziranga and Pobitora.
Stocks for tranquillising at least 20 rhinos have been ordered. Once the drug arrives, the translocation process can start within 10 days. “It is now upto the supplier in South Africa to complete the formalities,” the WWF official said.
The forest department arranged to get the import licence for the drug on its own once it became known that getting the drug from Nandankanan zoo would take a long time and there was no certainty.
The long-delayed rhino translocation process under the Rhino Vision 2020 will finally see the light of day as all clearances for getting the immobilising drug have now been obtained.
The IUCN Species Survival Commission (IUCN/SSC) African and Asian rhino specialist groups have informed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora that after the first two rhinos were moved to Manas under the project last year, progress has been slow because red tape slowed down procurement of imported immobilising drugs.
“It has been a long wait and we had asked the WWF to meet the authorities in Delhi and other places to get the clearances for getting the drug,” B.S. Bonal, chief conservator of forests (monitoring and evaluation), told The Telegraph.
The immobilising drug, delayed because of Christmas and New Year, will take another month to come from South Africa.
