After a surge in rhino poaching this year at Kaziranga National Park the forestry department has released a paper to allay fears for the species. The paper shows that despite an increase in poaching of the one-horned rhino the population in Assam is up by 27% since 2006 and the state is on target to meet the Indian rhino vision target of 3000. The ‘White Paper on Wildlife Conservation in Assam’ was released today by the Environment and Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain. It shows that the current population of one-horned rhinos is 2544. This is up from the last census of 2006 when the state of Assam had 2006, giving a population growth rate of 4.6% a year. This is above the target of the Indian Rhino Vision of 3.25%. The Kaziranga National Park, the stronghold of the species, now has 2329 with the remaining 215 rhino living in other parts of the state. “Rhino poaching is an international phenomenon and we are working wholeheartedly to stop it. It is because of this that we have sought help from experts from Nepal and even South Africa to help us meet the challenges,” the Minister Hussain said. “When I took charge of the department, the one-horned rhino was tagged as an endangered species. But with its population increase, in spite of incidents of poaching, the endangered tag has been lifted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It is now bracketed under the vulnerable category,” Building the rhino population back to current levels has been a tough job. The Minister stated that in the last 9 years there has been battles between poachers and park rangers resulting in 27 poachers being killed and 198 being arrested. Since 2006 there has been 156 rhinos killed in the state by poachers and 96 of these has been at the Kaziranga National Park. (Source : Wildlife News)