Six-year-old male rhino killed in UP

A six-year-old male rhino was killed in a fight with another male rhino in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR).
Divisional forest officer (DFO) of north Kheri, G P Singh, who is also acting as Deputy Director of DTR, confirmed the death of the rhino.
"The rhino was killed in a fight with another male rhino in the Salukapur Rhino Rehabilitation Area in a mating conflict yesterday," Singh told PTI.
"The post-mortem examination by a panel of three doctors carried out on Wednesday evening revealed severe injuries on the hind legs which endorsed the death from infighting," he said.
This is the fourth death of a rhino in Dudhwa as a consequence of mating conflict.

Earlier, Arjun, Bankey and Sahdev - all male rhinos - have been killed in such conflicts since February this year.

With this death, the RRA in Dudhwa has been left with 31 rhinos.
Rhinos were re-introduced in Dudhwa on April 1, 1984 after a gap of over a century. Till 1850, rhinos in Dudhwa were in plenty due to an adaptable habitat.
However, due to lack of proper conservation and protection, the rhinos in Dudhwa went extinct in later part of 18th century.
But after the establishment of Dudhwa National Park in 1977, a need was felt to reintroduce the rhinos on their ancestral land of Dudhwa.

In 1984, the rhino re-introduction programme was launched and five rhinos from Pobitara Sanctuary were relocated to the specially maintained 27-sq km stretch of Rhino Rehabilitation Area in south Sonaripur range in Dudhwa.
After the death of two rhinos then, three rhinos were arranged from Chitwan park of Nepal in exchange of 16 elephants in 1985.
Owing to the highly adaptable ecosystem, skilled habitat management and well-placed protection and monitoring, the rhino family in RRA which started with just five rhinos grew up to 32.