Context: The Kaziranga National Park has requested the Eastern Command chief for the Army’s assistance in building three Bailey bridges to replace wooden structures in flood-prone areas.
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The Eastern Command chief, has received a request from Kaziranga National Park to build three Bailey bridges to replace wooden structures in vulnerable areas that are frequently flooded. The bridges would improve connectivity and shorten routes to the vulnerable areas, making it easier for forest guards to coordinate and protect the one-horned rhino population. The bridges, which would be built in Mihi, Kathparaghat, and Rongamotia, would be 4 meters wide and between 30-100 meters long.
Kaziranga National Park
- It is a national park which is located in the state of Assam, India.
- It hosts two-thirds of the world’s Indian rhinoceroses and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- It was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2006.
- It is home to large populations of elephants, wild water buffalo, and swamp deer.
- It is also recognized as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International.
Greater One horned Rhino
- It is the largest of the rhino species and identified by a single black horn and a grey-brown hide with skin folds.
- The species is solitary, except when adult males or rhinos nearing adulthood gather at wallows or to graze.
- They primarily graze, with a diet consisting of grasses as well as leaves, branches of shrubs and trees, fruit, and aquatic plants.
- IUCN Status: Vulnerable
Sumatran Rhino
- They are the smallest species of Rhino.
- They have two horns that are dark grey to black in colour.
- They are fast runners and are very agile.
- IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
Javan Rhino
- They are most threatened of the five rhino species, with only around 60 individuals that live only in Java, Indonesia.
- It has a dusky grey colour and a single horn of up to about 10 inches.
- It is very similar in appearance to the closely-related greater one-horned rhinoceros.
- IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
Black Rhino
- Among black and white rhinos, black rhinos are the smaller of the two African rhino species.
- It is native to eastern and southern African countries.
- Black and white rhinos can be distinguished by the shape of their lips.
- Black rhinos are browsers, rather than grazers, meaning they are herbivores who do not feed on low-growing vegetation.
- They have two horns, which grow continually from the skin at their base throughout the rhino’s life (like human fingernails).
- IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
White Rhino
- They are the second-largest land mammal and also known as the square-lipped rhinoceros.
- The majority (98.8%) of the southern white rhinos occur in just four countries: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya.
- They are the only of the five rhino species that are not endangered.
- IUCN Status: Near Threatened
