GUWAHATI: After eight tense days, the female rhino that was stranded on a sand bar in the Brahmaputra, was rescued from Uparhali area, about 35km from here, on Sunday. The rhino had strayed out fromPobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and swept by the floodwaters to the Rani Chapori sand bar in the river. Uparhali, where the animal was found on Sunday, is about 10km from the sand bar.
A 17-member team comprising veterinarians, animal rescue experts and forest department officials tranquilized the rhino around 4.30pm on Sunday. The animal was put in a wooden crate that was loaded on a truck. The entire operation took more than three hours. Initially, an IAF chopper had been kept on standby at the city airport to airlift the rhino if necessary.
"It's been a successful operation. We are very happy that the rhino has been successfully darted. All credit goes to the rescue team, the frontline people and forest staff who were engaged in the rescue efforts from day one," forest minister Rockybul Hussain, who was present during the operation, said.
Principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife) Suresh Chand said that the rhino will be taken to the Assam State Zoo here for treatment and necessary veterinary care before being released in the wild.
"We are taking the rhino to the zoo following the advice of senior veterinarian Dr K K Sharma as the animal has got injury marks and is aged. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi has also instructed us to follow veterinarians' advice. We will release the rhino only after the necessary treatment is over at the zoo," Hussain said.
"Besides having injury marks and being old, the animal is also stressed out. So, we have to wait till the health of the animal improves," Sharma said. Last Sunday, the rhino had landed at Rani Chapori after being swept for about 15km by the strong current of the river. Initially, the rescue operation could not be carried out because of the inclement weather. The rhino was also in bad health at that time.
This Sunday, the rhino was found at Uparhali area, about 10km from Rani Chapori. The area where the rhino was spotted was surrounded by human settlements. With improvement in the weather condition, the rescue team decided to carry out the operation on Sunday.
"We have been constantly monitoring the health and movements of the rhino. All the while the animal was at Rani Chapori, the weather condition did not allow us to carry out the rescue operation. Since the weather improved on Sunday, we went ahead with the task," one of the rescue team members said.
