Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary

Pobitora or Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife reserve in the Morigaon district of the state of Assam in India. It is located about 30 km east of Guwahati. The Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary is about 48 km by road from Guwahati. It is a 1-hour drive through a road passing by River Brahmaputra, and a small portion of the village of Mayong. It has a dense population of the Great Indian one-horned rhinoceros. It covers 38.8 km2. Though the total notified area of the park is 38.80 square kilometres, only 16 square kilometres is the effective rhino habitat. Pobitora was declared a reserved forest in 1971 and a wildlife sanctuary in 1987. It covers flat flood plains and a hillock .BiodiversityPobitora is mainly famous for its great Indian One-horned rhinoceros. Besides rhinoceros, the other animals are leopard, wild boar, Barking deer, wild buffalo etc. Assam’s Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary is also home to more than 2000 migratory birds and various reptiles. It is also an Important Bird Area. In Pobitora wildlife sanctuary, there are now around 93 rhinos, a ten per cent increase over the last six years. These 93 rhinos are surviving on merely 16 square kilometre area of the park. Pobitora has exceeded its rhino-bearing capacity and is overpopulated. The animals have begun moving outside the sanctuary in search of food, and chances of serious man-animal conflict are quite rife. Besides, the straying animals carry the risk of contracting diseases that afflict domestic animals. Under the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 (IRV 2020) which is a joint programme of the department of environment & forests, Govt of Assam, WWF India, the International Rhino Foundation and the US fish & wildlife service, six rhinos were translocated from Pobitora and re-introduced into the Manas National Park between December 2010 and January 2011. Earlier, under the same programme, two rhinos were similarly translocated from Pobitora to the Manas national Park in 2008.