The Return of the Rhinoceros — A Landmark Reintroduction

A species lost from the western Terai

Rhinos once ranged far more widely across the floodplains and grasslands of northern India. For Uttar Pradesh, the commonly cited marker of their disappearance is a record that the last rhino in Pilibhit was shot in 1878 ^[2]. We have not traced that record to its original source.

By the late twentieth century, wild greater one-horned rhinos survived mainly in Assam and West Bengal in India and in Nepal's Chitwan, Bardia and Shuklaphanta areas.

Why Dudhwa?

Reintroduction was planned as insurance. Keeping a species in only a few places leaves it exposed to disease, natural disaster or poaching. According to the history compiled by Mongabay-India, the IUCN's Asian Rhino Specialist Group focused attention on the Indian rhino in 1979. A sub-committee of India's wildlife board then selected Dudhwa, whose grasslands, wetlands and protection status appeared suitable ^[2].

A fenced area of about 27 square kilometres was set aside for the founders in early 1984 ^[2]. Later reporting describes it as being in the South Sonaripur range and protected along a 9-kilometre boundary by a rhino-proof trench ^[4].

The founders

The best contemporary source is a short paper published in Oryx in 1987 by J. B. Sale and S. Singh, who documented the first two years ^[1]. Later journalistic accounts differ from it in some details, so both are set out here.

The Assam animals, 1984. - Sale and Singh's account ^[1]. Six rhinos were captured in Assam in March 1984 and held for 9 to 19 days, during which one escaped. Five were brought to Dudhwa. One elderly female aborted a dead foetus and died before release. The remaining four were released in April and May 1984. - The later account ^[2]. Six were captured at Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and one died at Guwahati Zoo. Five were released on 20 April 1984, and two females died later that year, one while giving birth, leaving one female and two young males.

The Nepal animals, 1985. - Sale and Singh's account ^[1]. Four rhinos captured near Sauraha, beside Chitwan, in late March 1985 were released in Dudhwa a week later. - The later account ^[2]. They came under an agreement with Nepal in exchange for 16 Indian elephants, bringing the group to seven.

Early survival. By December 1986, seven of the eight rhinos released had survived at least twenty months, and three had passed thirty-one months. A second elderly female had died three months after release because of a paralysed limb ^[1].

Where the accounts disagree, for example on whether an animal escaped in Assam or died at Guwahati Zoo, the 1987 paper is the closer record. What both agree on is that the population began with a very small number of animals, and that only a handful of them bred.

Building a population

The first reported calving dates of 1987 and 1989 could not be confirmed from the sources available to us. They are left out here until they can be checked against the forest department's records.

What is documented is steady growth inside the fence. The deputy director of Dudhwa reported 34 rhinos in 2017. A 2022 survey of about three-quarters of what was by then a 41-square-kilometre rehabilitation area estimated 40 animals, including eight calves aged one to three ^[2]. That survey used drones and elephants, with WWF-India's rhino specialist taking part.

A second rehabilitation area of about 14 square kilometres was later created at Bhadi Tal in the Belrayan range. Four rhinos, three females and a male, were moved there from Sonaripur ^[2][3].

Why a fence, and for so long?

For nearly forty years Dudhwa's rhinos lived behind a fence and trench. Mongabay-India's reporting attributes this mainly to the risk of conflict with farmers and of poaching near the India–Nepal border ^[4].

A fenced breeding area is a different thing from a free-ranging population. Inside the fence, animals can be protected and monitored closely. But they cannot spread across the wider landscape, choose new grasslands or mix with other groups. A small, enclosed population descended from few founders also carries a growing risk of inbreeding.

Beyond the fence

In November 2024 the reserve began releasing rhinos into the wider national park. The first, a male named Raghu, aged 12 to 15, was tranquilised, fitted with a radio collar and released from the 27-square-kilometre area. Three females were scheduled to follow ^[3].

Further releases followed in March 2025 and March 2026. The last, in March 2026, moved one male and three females aged 15 to 25 into unfenced core grassland. That left eight free-ranging rhinos in Dudhwa at the time of reporting ^[4].

According to the same report:

• Genetic selection. The animals were DNA-tested under the Wildlife Institute of India's RhoDIS programme, and only unrelated or distantly related rhinos were chosen ^[4].
• Tracking. A control room follows them by VHF and satellite ^[4].
• The plan. The initial phase aims to establish about ten free-ranging animals ^[4].
• Capacity. A 2012 assessment suggested Dudhwa might support some 80 to 100 rhinos across nearly 500 square kilometres if they can roam beyond the fence ^[4].

These are recent developments, reported as of the dates given. A release is a beginning, not proof of recovery. Independent experts have noted the risks: straying onto farms, poaching, males dispersing beyond the protected area, conflict with elephants or between rhinos, and predation by tigers on young animals ^[4]. Whether the free-ranging animals settle, breed and stay safe will only become clear over years.

What rhinos need

Greater one-horned rhinos are grazers of tall, moist grassland, floodplain and wetland edges. They need fresh grass, water and wallows, and cover in the tall phanta grasslands. These are exactly the habitats that make Dudhwa distinctive. Rhinos share them with swamp deer, hog deer, wild elephants and tigers, so managing grassland for one species affects them all. The natural history story explains why these grasslands depend on active management.

Why it matters

Dudhwa's rhinos are the only population of the species in Uttar Pradesh. They are an important test of whether a large mammal can be restored to part of its former range in India. The project's history shows both what patient protection can achieve and how long it takes to move from a protected breeding group to a population living freely in the wider landscape.

What this story tells us about Dudhwa today

Seeing a rhino in Dudhwa means seeing the result of decades of work by forest staff, veterinarians, scientists and partner organisations, much of it unseen. The grasslands that hold them are managed habitat, and the free-ranging animals are being followed closely. The story is still being written.

In closing

A few animals, moved across a subcontinent and a border, have become a breeding population of dozens. Their descendants are now taking their first steps beyond the fence. The return of the rhinoceros to Dudhwa is one of the Terai's great conservation stories, all the more valuable for being told honestly, setbacks included.