GS 3: Environment-Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation

Why in News?

The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has begun a project to create DNA profiles of all rhinos in the country.

Highlights:

• The project is a subset of the Centre’s larger, ongoing rhino conservation programme.
• By 2021, the project’s deadline, the Indian rhino could be the first wild animal species in India to have all its members DNA-sequenced.
• The project will help in curbing poaching and gathering evidence in wildlife crimes involving rhinos.
• The database will be hosted in the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) headquarters in Dehradun.

Rhinos:

• There are three species of rhino in Asia —Greater one-horned, Javan and Sumatran. Javan and Sumatran Rhino are critically endangered and the Greater one-horned (or Indian) rhino is vulnerable In IUCN Red List.
• They are spread across India, Nepal, Bhutan, Indonesia and Malaysia. These countries are also known as Asian Rhino Range Countries.
• Only the Great one-horned rhino is found in India.
• At present, there are about 2,600 Indian rhinos in India, with more than 90% of the population concentrated in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park.

National Rhino Conservation Strategy:

• It calls for active engagement between India and Nepal to conserve the Greater one-horned rhinoceros.
• The plan said the single population of rhinos in Sukla-Phanta (Nepal), Valmiki Tiger Reserve (India) and Chitwan National Park (Nepal) and Dudhwa (India) is separated by the political boundary between the two countries.
• It asks for the management of the two population under the same protocol, instead of managing the two population separately.The plan calls for expanding distribution range as the occurrence of 90% of the rhino in one protected area is a cause of concern and conservation of existing and potential rhino habitats need to be made a national priority.

Indian Rhino Vision 2020:

Launched in 2005, Indian RhinoVision 2020 is an ambitious effort to attain a wild population of at least 3,000 greater one-horned rhinos spread over seven protected areas in the Indian state of Assam by the year 2020.Seven protected areas are Kaziranga, Pobitora, Orang National Park,Manas National Park, Laokhowa wildlife sanctuary, Burachapori wildlife sanctuary and Dibru Saikhowa wildlife sanctuary.It is a collaborative effort between various organisations, including the International Rhino Foundation, Assam’s Forest Department, Bodoland Territorial Council, World Wide Fund –India, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.