Wildlife officials found a baby rhino wondering alone on Monday in the Kaziranga National Park, located in the Northeast Indian State of Assam.
While it is common to find a baby rhino separated from its mother during monsoon season, such as this time, the young calf is still at risk because it has been found to be only three days old. It has been surrendered to the Center for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), which later handed over the baby rhino to the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Wildlife Trust of India. The newborn is receiving bottle-fed milk formula, as reported by Here and Now.
The calf was lucky enough to have escaped the risk of poaching, as there have been 12 rhinoceros killed in poaching beginning January this year up to now, BBC News reported.
A nonprofit rhino conservation association called Save the Rhino has reported that there is an increase in rhino horns poaching, as horns are being used in traditional medicine, according to Peoples Pets.
A thorough search had been done on the 430-square-kilometre (166-square-mile) Kaziranga Park to find the baby rhino's mother, but it ended up unsuccessful. The mother is suspected to have become a victim of poaching, The Independent reported.
Kaziranga Park happens to be the habitat for the world's largest concentration of one-horned rhinoceros and is also a Unesco World Heritage site that tigers, elephants, panthers and bears, and thousands of birds inhabit.
