Three generations in the wild: rescued rhino ‘Ganga’ becomes a grandmother at Manas
India's 22-year-old rescued rhino Ganga has become a grandmother after the birth of a newborn greater one-horned rhino calf at Manas National Park in Baksa district, Assam. The calf was delivered by Ganga-Ka, the second-generation rhino born to Ganga. Ganga was rescued as a 4-month-old stranded infant from the 2004 Brahmaputra floods in Kaziranga National Park, hand-raised at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation, and translocated to Manas National Park in 2007. This birth marks the first three-generation lineage of a rehabilitated rhino in the wild in India. The Assam Chief Minister hailed the event on social media. Dr. Bhaskar Choudhury, Head Veterinarian for the Wildlife Trust of India, stated, "The fact that the second generation of calves is breeding in the wild is a clear indication of the success of our rhino rehabilitation efforts." Poaching and civil unrest wiped out the local rhino population in the 1990s, but sustained conservation work by the Assam Forest Department, Wildlife Trust of India, and IFAW restored the population to over 50 rhinos. Assam Forest Department officials confirmed that frontline protection staff are maintaining a round-the-clock watch on the newborn and mother.
