Two rhinos released into Manas National Park in India.

January 2007. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), and its partner, WTI (Wildlife Trust of India), have successfully released two one-horned Asian rhinos back to the wild in India with support from Assam Forest Department. The rhinos, female calves nicknamed Manasi and Roje, were rescued from the floodwaters that annually spill over the banks of the Brahmaputra River. The pair, both three years old, were rescued in the summer of 2004 and rehabilitated at the Centre for Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) in North East India.

The new arrivals will join a four year old female rhino that was released by IFAW and WTI in February 2006 - the first rhino in Manas National Park in more than a decade. Wild rhinos in Manas, a World Heritage site, once numbered more than 100.

‘The rhinos will wear radio collars for post release monitoring,’ said Dr. Ian Robinson, who heads up IFAW’s Emergency Relief team. ‘We want to do everything possible to assure a successful transition back to the wild for these animals.’ ‘We are confident that the rhinos will do well in Manas as we are involving not just governments but also the local people,’ said M.C. Malakar, Chief Wildlife Warden of Assam. ‘The CWRC rescue centre has helped us rescue and rear more animals than before. I thank IFAW for setting up the rescue centre with WTI.’

‘Manas once supported a lot of rhinos; however certain problems wiped them out. Now, it is good to release these rhino calves in Manas as it is conducive to rhino populations,’ said D.M. Singh, Director of Kaziranga National Park. ‘Earlier we would rescue animals and take them to the zoo and that was the end. But now the CWRC rescue centre has made rehabilitation into the wild a possibility.’