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Paper short abstract:

Analysing the anecdotes of the wandering rhinos around the Kaziranga National Park, this paper pieces together how group interaction, conservation practices and dynamics of neighbouring floodplain ecology paved for solitary rhinos to colonize new territories and expand the rhino habitat.

Paper long abstract:

Around the turn of the twentieth century, the greater one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) stared at extinction due to its indiscriminate killing for its horn. During 1905–1908, the colonial Government of Assam created three game reserves in Kaziranga, Laokhowa and North Kamrup (now Manas) to preserve the rhino.

The colonial government was ambivalent towards its approach to conserving the rhino. After independence in 1947, the rhino received renewed enthusiasm, giving India the first taste of success in conserving a large mammal. Kaziranga (now a national park) became the centre stage of this success. Scholars have pointed out that contrary to the tiger, which symbolizes a centralized and exclusive approach to conservation, the revival of the rhino highlights a more decentralized, local and inclusive approach in the past.

This revival of the rhino saw the rhino colonizing grasslands and floodplains outside the boundaries of Kaziranga. The rhino has an unusually small home range of 2-6 square kilometres. Notwithstanding such ethology and security within the sanctuary, a few rhinos moved to newer areas, often sub-prime habitats.

There is no paper trail to trace the rhino's changing behaviour or colonization of newer areas. Sifting through dozens of anecdotes of the wandering rhinos, this paper pieces together how group interaction, conservation practices (law and patrolling) and dynamics of neighbouring floodplain ecology created conditions in which a few rhinos could wander afar from their habitat to colonize new territories and also took to crop-raiding, a habit not characteristic to the rhino.

Such changing behaviour of the rhino is crucial to understanding because wandering not only decongested the sanctuary but also expanded the rhino habitat, leading to greater conflict over resources, which are still unresolved.