KOLKATA: In 2001, when Dr Abhijit Rabha returned to Manas National Park as field director, the park had been given up as dead by many. Years of civil strife and poaching had left Manas scarred beyond recognition. It took a lot of effort in the next four years to build a dedicated team of conservators comprising foresters, erstwhile poachers and former militants before the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 came into being in 2005. Ten years later the park, where rhinos were relocated from elsewhere, has witnessed the births of several calves and has returned to its former glory.

“My first posting to Manas was as deputy field director. Those were turbulent times and I had two brushes with death. On one occasion, I was fired upon. I also survived a powerful bomb blast. In 1995, after suffering an injury after a fall from an elephant, I was transferred out. When I returned in July, 2001, as field director, Manas was in a shambles. There were more muzzle-loaders in villages than the elephant population in Manas. Venison trade was flourishing in the undivided Barpeta district. Entire hog deer were smuggled to Guwahati for post-marriage Bhoj. An elephant was gunned down every week. Of the three ranges in the park, only the Bansbari Range remained. The Bhuyanpara Range was run from a clerk’s office in my colony. The Great Indian Rhinoceros was written off as ‘No More There’ in the park habitat,” says Rabha.

The field director had a difficult task to perform. Manas would never recover, the experts said and consignments of .315 rifles and ammunition for forest guards were diverted to Nameri National Park. Wireless sets went to the Dibru Saikhowa National Park. Only nine camps/beats functioned in Manas with two fixed radio stations between them.

“I was clutching at straws. I invited everybody – forest guards, foresters, game watchers, drivers, boatmen, mahouts, ghasis, even office assistants and sweepers – to the lawn of my bungalow for cups of tea and sought their advice. Thus was born the Alfa strike group for Long Range Patrols in the jungle. A special enforcement unit also came up to strike against wildlife crime. Training was important. When not at work, the forest guards trained continuously in things like survival and unarmed combat. It was a lonely struggle. Then we asked ourselves – Why can’t we win? The answer popped up. We would have to get the leaders and the public. I finally turned to All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) and ex-Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) cadres. I met them on a river bed at Kokilabari. The eastern sector of the park had to be guarded at all costs if Manas was to survive. Thus was born the Maozigendri Eco-tourism Society, the first group of conservation volunteers. Poachers who had emptied Manas joined in patrolling the forest,” Rabha added.

Indian Rhino Vision 2020 was born soon after this as a partnership between the Assam forest department, Bodoland Territorial Council, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), International Rhino Foundation (IRF) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The goal is to attain a wild population of at least 3,000 greater one-horned rhinos in Assam by 2020. Translocation of rhinos to Manas started in 2006 and 2012 brought cheer with the birth of the first calf there. Environmentalists agree that this may not have been possible had the ground not been prepared by Rabha and his dedicated team.