Guwahati, May 29: Assam?s official symbol, the one-horned rhino, has a new price tag: a whopping Rs 15 lakh for each.
The price was stagnant at Rs 6.5 lakh for over a decade till the state government more than doubled the figure with effect from June 1. The notification on the increase in the price was issued recently by the joint secretary of the forest department.
Assam is home to over 80 per cent of the world?s population of the rhinoceros unicornis, whose natural habitats are confined to the Himalayan terrain stretching from central Nepal to parts of the Northeast.
The population of the species has increased by 40 per cent over the past five years.
The 1999 census pegged the number of rhinos in the Kaziranga National Park, the most famous abode of the species, at 1,552, up from a mere 366 in 1966. The much smaller Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary has 75 rhinos, the highest density of the species per square km, while Orang Wildlife Sanctuary has 46.
Official sources said the proposal to increase the price of a rhino had been under consideration for a long time now. Forest minister Pradyut Bordoloi had recently announced in the Assembly that the rhino would henceforth be the state?s official animal.
Forest officials said the price had been determined in accordance with the Assam Wildlife Protection Rules of 1990. The previous price had been fixed before the rules came into being.
The Assam State Zoo has eight rhinos at present, of which five are male. A female named Laharani died in the zoo recently. A post-mortem revealed that the rhino had died of rabies. The animal had been rescued from the wilds of Kaziranga in 1998, when she was just three, and sent to the state zoo.
A source in the zoo said the decision to sell a rhino to another zoological park was always a difficult one to make, mainly because of the sentimental attachment between the zookeepers and the animal.
?We think and debate a lot before giving away a rhino. We have to take cognisance of the two main factors ? conservation and monetary gain ? while arriving at a decision.?
Though conservation programmes have succeeded in increasing the rhino population, poaching continues to be a problem for the wildlife-management authorities. Two rhinos were recently killed in the Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary.
Apart from Kaziranga, Pabitora and Orang, rhinos inhabit the Manas National Park and the Loakhowa and Sonai-Rupai wildlife sanctuaries.
The greater Asian one-horned rhino is recognisable by a single black horn and a grey brown hide with folds of skin, which give it an armoured appearance. It is the largest of the three Asian rhinoceros species and weighs about two tonnes.
A plaque carved by an Argentine ranger and dedicated to rangers from Assam who have lost their lives defending protected areas now graces a national park in faraway Australia. The plaque was unveiled last month by ranger Dharanidhar Das Boro of Assam at the Wilsons Promontary National Park in Victoria.
The International Ranger Federation selected Boro for the honour because of the respect he commands in wildlife circles.