A Colourful Rehab

A veterinary couple run a rehabilitation centre for the injured and orphaned animals of the Kaziranga National Park

TERESA REHMAN

Monsoons mean sleepless nights for the veterinarian couple Phulmoni Gogoi and her husband Prasanta Boro. Night-patrolling National Highway-37, attending to frantic calls from villagers on wild animals like hog deer, swamp deer, pythons, rhinos, elephant calves and even leopards straying into their villages – are a routine feature.

The resident veterinarian couple stationed at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), located in Borjuri village adjacent to the Panbari Reserve Forest, near Kaziranga National Park in Assam rush with their team of keepers and volunteers to attend to any wildlife emergencies resulting from natural as well as anthropogenic causes. CWRC is the first rescue and rehabilitation centre near a protected area in India.

“Bird rescue is also very common. In fact, this season, we also got two cases of injury of rare bird species – a wreathed Hornbill and a chick of a woolly necked stork. Both were cases of ‘nestfall’. They are undergoing treatment at our nursery,” says Phulmoni. The Centre has the essential veterinary infrastructure including an examination clinic, a surgery theatre and an evolving preliminary disease investigation laboratory. It also has shelters for birds, reptiles, ungulates and primates, enclosures for big cats and nurseries for mega-herbivores.

Responding to the increased animal mortality during the annual floods in Kaziranga, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) initiated this centre to cater to the rescued wild animals during the annual flooding of the river Brahmaputra. The flood forces animals to come out of the Park, across a National Highway and into the hills of the Karbi Anglong. The long mortality list usually features hog deer, rhinos and other animals dead due to drowning, road accidents and poaching by opportunistic villagers. In a bad flood year such as 1998, the Park can lose up to 200 animals.

Prasanta recalls, “In fact, during the 2004 floods, when I was working here as a volunteer, we received 21 hog deer in a day. During floods, most of the animals are swept away, badly injured or aspirated.”

Since its inception in August 2002, the centre has attended to 846 cases (of 130 different species) of temporarily and permanently displaced animals. Among its significant achievements are the rehabilitation of many species of birds, reptiles and mammals including endangered species like the Asian elephant and the greater one-horned rhinoceros. Recognised by the Central Zoo Authority, the Centre is a joint venture of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), its partner, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Assam Forest Department and was built with support from the Animal Welfare Division, Government of India.
The centre is also taking the wildlife awareness to the local villagers. Most of the keepers employed at the centre are from the adjoining villages. Bhadreswar Das, a keeper says, “I was here since the beginning. I helped clear the jungle to set up the centre. I grew up with animals around me. I enjoy this job, although it can get very hectic. I now know how to capture a stray animal without scaring it.”

Das, who boasts a completed school education, maintains a register noting down the feeding time of the animals. He recalls with pride, “Two rhino calves grew up in my hands and both have been rehabilitated in the Manas National Park. Rearing a rhino calf needs continuous and patient monitoring.”

Earlier, the villagers did not know how to handle a stray animal. Sometimes, they informed the forest department but more often, they scared it so much that usually animals like the deer died of shock. Lakhindra Das, a farmer of Panbari village located near the Centre says, “We now know how to rescue a stray animal. Earlier, the villagers didn’t know that they are not supposed to give any kind of solid food to, say, a one-month old elephant calf and sometimes, they offered the calf bananas and fruits which the animal can’t digest. Also, the reptiles like pythons which sneaked into the villages were killed. The man-animal conflict now has been drastically reduced.”

In fact, educational institutions like Gauhati University (GU) has joined in this endeavour by sending volunteers to help in the rescue operations and to generate awareness among the villagers. Parimal Chandra Bhattacharjee, Professor, Department of Zoology, also a trustee of WTI says, “Our students go as volunteers and are exposed to the workings of the state-of-the-art centre which follows all international protocols and IUCN guidelines.”

Bhattacharjee maintains that Assam is the wildlife capital of India with a variety of Schedule I species. “We have to very careful to ensure that the genetic stock is not lost when we release the animals back in the wild. The aim of the centre is to stabilise the animals, provide first-aid and release them back into the wild as close to the original site of rescue as possible, following IUCN guidelines,” he adds.

Bhattacharjee explains that the centre, however, is neither a zoo nor a captive breeding centre. The only animals kept for long periods are those that cannot go back due to permanent injury or behavioral abnormality, and orphans that have to be hand-reared. In fact, CWRC’s hand-reared rhino calves were the first to be reintroduced at the Manas National Park in Assam after their entire population was wiped out by militants.

The centre radio-collars such hand-reared orphans as this ensures a clear monitoring of the success of rehabilitation and avoids any chance of animals getting into conflict with people living in adjoining areas. Animals released following a short treatment are not radio-collared, but a sample of even these are monitored by banding (in case of birds), ear tagging (in case of wild cats), and visual observation (in case of elephants or rhinos) to ensure their survival.

At present, there are 24 animals, including seven elephants, two hornbills, one hog badger, one rhino calf, six civets currently growing up at centre, awaiting to be released after a final nod from rehabilitators and vets on their physical and mental readiness

The Centre has lent support to the state forest department’s endeavour to save every animal affected by floods. M.C. Malakar, PCCF (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden, Assam says, “This is a joint project with the forest department with financial, manpower and technical assistance from WTI. We attempt to save, treat, hopefully, every animal in distress, especially during floods.”

Meanwhile, work goes on as usual at the centre. It’s 2pm — time to feed the elephant calf, hardly 20-25 days old. Prasanta Boro says, “The naval wound is still there. We have a keeper who stays with the calf 24 hours as it cries and looks for its mother. The calf is fed with milk and additional vitamin supplements.” Phulmoni on the other hand, tends the recently rescued wreathed Hornbill, which is carefully placed in a basket covered with a piece of flannel cloth. She cautions us not to enter the room and disturb the bird.

As floods wreak havoc in Assam every year and politicians cry hoarse over lack of relief materials, it’s reassuring to know that someone is in charge of the distressed wild animals.