World Rhino Day focus on India-Bhutan joint conservation

Twenty years ago, western Assam’s Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve had no one-horned rhinos. A reintroduction programme begun in 2006 helped its number increase to almost 50 today, but it has brought a new conservation challenge — the park’s rhinos going international.

The national park authorities marked World Rhino Day on Tuesday (September 22, 2026) by celebrating the herbivore’s “comeback” and three successive years of zero poaching. Rhino specialists, however, called for a policy shift by making Bhutan a conservation partner.

“According to the 2022 census, Manas has an estimated 48 rhinos, although some died and a few were born during these four years. We have a much better environment today because the local stakeholders want more rhinos, which they say draw more tourists than other animals, including the tiger,” Deba Kumar Dutta, a frontline conservation scientist associated with the rhino translocation programme, said.