Greater One Horned Rhino

WWF continues to play an active role in establishing new rhino populations by moving them from one protected area to another, a process called translocation. The rhinos are moved to protected areas within the Eastern Himalayas, particularly in India’s Kaziranga and North Bank Landscapes. Our work helps establish new rhino populations in places where the species has disappeared. Several rhinos have already been moved from the Probitora and Kaziranga reserves to Manas National Park, a World Heritage Site, in order to establish a new rhino population. WWF is a key partner to the Indian state government of Assam on this mission.

WWF supports national park staff and rangers with equipment and training in order to protect rhinos from poaching and track other illegal activities such as logging. We also invest in improving rhino monitoring to collect data and measure progress towards achieving rhino conservation goals, assess the reproductive health and growth rate of populations, and make the right decisions to keep rhino numbers growing at a rate of more than 5 percent.

As rhino populations increase, they need additional space to live and breed. WWF and partners restore rhino habitat in Nepal to increase rhino numbers and improve connectivity between protected areas. Chitwan National Park's population of greater one-horned rhinos is the second largest population of this species in the world, after India's Kaziranga National Park. In Kaziranga National Park, WWF works to secure habitat corridors so that rhinos have access to higher areas outside of the park during annual floods which inundate the park.

The protected areas of India and Nepal, where rhinos reside, are surrounded by dense human populations. It is vital to ensure that communities that live around rhino reserves are sympathetic to, and benefit from, the rhinos in their midst. WWF supports several projects to improve local livelihoods, like the successful community-run Marmelous juice factory in Khata, Nepal. We help decrease conflict between people and rhinos by encouraging farmers to plant unpalatable species like menthe (mint) that generates money for the communities and supports community-based antipoaching operations.

WWF partners with national governments to strengthen wildlife laws and their enforcement, and fund antipoaching equipment and operations in protected areas. In response to a poaching spike in Nepal in 2006, WWF increased the number of security posts from eight to twenty. We also engaged ex-Army and police to patrol vulnerable points outside protected areas. Local youth volunteered to guard individual rhinos through the night. WWF relayed the information collected by these allies to key government departments so they could take action where needed. The number of rhinos poached in and around Chitwan in 2007 fell to only one. WWF expanded the operation to protect the diminishing rhino population in Bardia National Park, the second-largest stronghold for rhinos in Nepal. In 2011, Nepal celebrated a landmark year where zero rhinos were poached.