Article Title: One horned Rhinoceros
04-01-2023
Environment & Ecology Prelims Plus
Why is in news? PM lauds rhino conservation efforts by people of Assam after zero poaching incidents reported in 2022
The greater one-horned rhino (or “Indian rhino”) is the largest of the rhino species.
Once widespread across the entire northern part of the Indian sub-continent, rhino populations plummeted as they were hunted for sport or killed as agricultural pests.
This pushed the species very close to extinction and by the start of the 20th century, around 200 wild greater one-horned rhinos remained.
Today populations have increased to around 3,700 rhinos in northeastern India and the Terai grasslands of Nepal.
The habitat of rhinos includes Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands.
Indian Rhinos are brownish-grey in colour and are hairless. They primarily graze, with a diet consisting almost entirely of grasses as well as leaves, branches of shrubs and trees, fruit, and aquatic plants.
It is confined to the tall grasslands and forests in the foothills of the Himalayas.
The Great one-horned rhino is commonly found in Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and in Assam, India.
Protection Status: IUCN Red List: Vulnerable, CITES: Appendix I, Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule I.
Threats: Poaching for the horns, Habitat loss, Population density, Decreasing Genetic diversity.
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