Rhino Phase I (2026-31) to Expand Range Into Bihar, Arunachal as a Grassland Atlas Is Planned

The news

New Delhi. Writing in The Indian Express to mark World Rhino Day on September 22, Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav set out the government’s plans for the greater one-horned rhinoceros; this is the government’s own account of its programme. The rhino’s historical range, he writes, extended across the northern subcontinent along the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra river systems, but its wild population in India is now concentrated mainly in Assam, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, in the Brahmaputra floodplains and the Terai grasslands. The National Conservation Strategy for the rhinoceros, launched in 2019, provides a framework for strengthening existing populations, restoring the species to suitable former habitats, maintaining genetic security (enough separate populations that one flood or disease cannot wipe out most of the species, and enough mixing to avoid inbreeding) and habitat connectivity, promoting scientifically planned translocations and building climate resilience. Rhino numbers have risen from around 1,500 in the 1980s to more than 4,000 as of September 2024. A five-year Phase I (2026-2031), proposed for support through the National CAMPA Authority, brings together Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, with a focus on scientific monitoring, protection, habitat restoration, translocation planning, coexistence and capacity building, and seeks to support expansion into suitable areas in Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh. CAMPA funds come from agencies that divert forest land. The Rhino Conservation Action Plan provides for mapping grasslands and wetlands, identifying invasive species, prioritising habitats for restoration and protected-area-specific management protocols. Grasslands need science-based management to prevent degradation, “inappropriate succession” (the natural drift of grassland into scrub and woodland) and the spread of invasive species; the same habitats shelter swamp deer, wild buffalo, elephants, tigers and grassland birds. A separate five-year (2026-2031) Comprehensive Assessment of Indian Grasslands, to be implemented by the Wildlife Institute of India, the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education and the Forest Survey of India, will assess grassland extent, condition, biodiversity, degradation, ecosystem services and carbon potential, supporting a National Grassland Atlas. Flooding is intrinsic to landscapes like Kaziranga, but more extreme events make access to higher ground and dispersal routes important. At the Second Asian Rhino Range States Conservation Meeting in New Delhi in 2019, India, Bhutan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Nepal adopted the New Delhi Declaration, he recalls. The piece names no budget or specific sites. The syllabus link is GS3 on conservation and biodiversity.

Static syllabus linkage

1. The greater one-horned rhino is a recovering but still Vulnerable species. The greater one-horned or Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) is found in India and Nepal and is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, having been moved there from Endangered in 2008. It is protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and listed in Appendix I of CITES, which bans international commercial trade. Of the other two Asian rhinos, the Javan and the Sumatran rhinoceros are both Critically Endangered; Africa has the white and black rhinoceros. The horn is made of keratin, the protein in human hair and nails, and demand for it in traditional medicine has driven poaching. World Rhino Day, September 22, was first announced by WWF-South Africa in 2010.
2. A handful of protected areas carry India’s rhinos. Kaziranga National Park in Assam holds the largest population of the species in the world and, with Manas National Park, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam has the highest density of rhinos, and Orang National Park is another Assam stronghold. Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh received rhinos in a reintroduction in 1984, and Jaldapara and Gorumara National Parks hold West Bengal’s rhinos. Under Indian Rhino Vision 2020, launched by Assam in 2005 with conservation partners, the goal was 3,000 rhinos spread over seven protected areas, and translocations restored rhinos to Manas, which had lost them to poaching.
3. CAMPA money comes from forest diversion and is governed by a 2016 Act. When forest land is diverted for non-forest use under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, now titled the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980 after the 2023 amendment, the user agency pays for compensatory afforestation and the net present value of the lost forest. Supreme Court orders in the T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad case led to an ad hoc Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) to hold these funds. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 placed them in a National Fund in the Public Account of India and State Funds in the Public Accounts of the States, with 90% going to States and 10% to the National Fund. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Rules, 2018 list permissible uses, which include wildlife and habitat management along with afforestation.
4. Floodplain grasslands are ecosystems in their own right, not wasteland. The Terai and Brahmaputra floodplain grasslands are kept open by annual floods, grazing and fire; without them, they turn into woodland through ecological succession. They support grassland specialists such as the swamp deer or barasingha (Vulnerable), the wild water buffalo (Endangered) and the Bengal florican (Critically Endangered). Invasive plants such as Mikania micrantha and Chromolaena odorata smother these grasslands. Historically, many open grasslands have been recorded as degraded or wasteland in land records and in the Wastelands Atlas of India, making them easy targets for tree plantations and diversion. The Wildlife Institute of India (1982), the Forest Survey of India (1981), which publishes the biennial India State of Forest Report, and the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education are all headquartered in Dehradun.

Why UPSC loves this

1. Prelims asks species status and protected areas every year. UPSC regularly asks which protected areas host a particular flagship species, the IUCN status of animals, and Schedule and CITES listings. The rhino’s status, its main parks and the three Asian rhino species are standard targets, and the New Delhi Declaration of 2019 is a convention-style fact of the kind the paper likes.
2. Mains wants conservation beyond the tiger. GS3 asks about biodiversity conservation, in-situ and ex-situ methods and the role of funding mechanisms. The shift from protecting one site to restoring a species’ historical range, and from species to landscapes such as grasslands, is the kind of analytical move an examiner rewards.
3. Grasslands are an emerging examination theme. The Great Indian Bustard litigation, the debate over tree planting on open natural ecosystems and the treatment of grasslands as wasteland have made grassland conservation a live topic. The National Grassland Atlas gives candidates a concrete, dated initiative to cite.

Analysis

1. The headcount is a success; the geography is still a risk. A rise from about 1,500 to over 4,000 is among the best recovery records for any large mammal in Asia. But most of these animals remain in a few protected areas, above all Kaziranga, which floods every year. A single extreme flood, disease outbreak or poaching surge in one park could undo a large share of the gains. This is why the Minister’s emphasis on genetic security and range expansion is sound in principle. The measure of success over the next five years should therefore be the number of secure, breeding populations, not the total count.
2. Range expansion is a social project, not a transport operation. Moving rhinos to Bihar and Arunachal is the easy part; keeping them alive there is the hard part. Manas lost its entire rhino population during years of insurgency and had to be restocked, which shows that a site must be secure before animals arrive. New populations will also raid crops at the edge of protected areas, so coexistence, which the Minister lists, needs compensation, fencing and community staff on the ground. The op-ed names no sites, no budget and no timeline for first translocations, and Phase I is only “proposed” for CAMPA support. Until these are public, the plan is a direction rather than a programme.
3. Using CAMPA for grasslands corrects a bias, but raises a principle. Compensatory afforestation has usually meant planting trees, often on open land that was never forest, which harms grassland species. Directing CAMPA money to grassland restoration and rhino habitat therefore corrects a tree-centric bias in how India compensates for lost forests. Yet CAMPA funds exist because forests elsewhere have been cut for mines, roads and dams, and using them for a flagship species programme can blur the question of whether the lost forest is actually being replaced. The CAG’s 2013 audit of compensatory afforestation found serious deficiencies in how such funds were used, so transparent outcome reporting matters as much as the allocation.
4. The Grassland Atlas may matter more than the rhino plan. India has no official map of its grasslands, which is why they are so easily recorded as wasteland and handed over for plantations, solar parks or industry. An assessment of extent, condition, biodiversity and carbon potential by WII, ICFRE and FSI would give grasslands the statistical visibility forests have through the State of Forest Report. That visibility is the first step towards legal recognition. The counter-view is that an atlas without a legal category changes nothing: many grasslands are revenue or common land, outside the Forest Department’s control, and mapping them could even invite ‘greening’ with trees if carbon potential is measured only above ground.
5. What the Minister’s account leaves out. The op-ed does not mention poaching, historically the main threat, or the invasive plants already spread across Kaziranga and Manas. It does not discuss the national highway along Kaziranga’s southern edge, where animals crossing to the Karbi Anglong hills during floods are hit, or the Supreme Court’s 2019 ban on mining in Kaziranga’s animal corridors, which shows that connectivity depends on land outside the parks. Nor does it address the eviction drives and livelihood conflicts around rhino habitats. A government’s op-ed is expected to celebrate; the examiner expects candidates to supply the rest.

Administrator's brainstorm