The Great Indian Rhino: One horned Rhinoceros

The Indian Rhinoceros also called the one-horned Rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) is primarily found in the north-eastern India. The Indian rhinoceros gets it's common name from the fact that it only has one horn rather than two. The Indian Rhinoceros is second in size only to the Asian elephant. It is found mainly in Assam and in protected areas of Terai of Nepal, where population are confined to the riverine grasslands in the foothills of Himalayas. The one-horned Rhino once ranged throughout the entire stretch of the Indo-Gangetic Plan but now it has reduced due to excessive hunting. The rhinos are also vulnerable to diseases spread by parasites such as leeches, ticks, and nematodes. Due to it's large size, the Indian rhino's only real predator in the wild are large wild cats such as tigers that will prey on the Indian rhino calves and weak individuals.

The Indian Rhinoceros can run at speed up to 25 mph (40 km/h) for short period of time and is also an excellent swimmer. It has excellent sense of smell and hearing but their eyesight are poor. The Indian Rhinoceros are brownish-gray in colour and are hairless. They have knobby skin that appears to be armour-plated and a single horn sits on top of their snout. The rhino’s single horn is present in both males and females, but not on newborn young. The horn of the Indian rhinoceros is made from a substance called keratin like human fingernails and is therefore very strong and starts to show after about six years. In most adults, the horn reaches a length of about 25 cm, but has been recorded up to 57.2 cm in length. It has very little body hair, aside from eyelashes, ear fringes and tail brush. Males develop thick neck folds.

The Indian rhinoceros are grazers and their diets consist almost entirely of grasses, but they also eat leaves, branches of shrubs and trees and even some floating aquatic plants. These animals forage in the cooler temperature in the morning and afternoon to avoid debilitating midday heat. When the sun is high, they often wallow or submerge themselves in water.

The Indian rhinoceros is solitary animal and only comes together with other Indian rhinos to mate. The female Indian rhinoceros gives birth to a single calf after a gestation period that is over a year long. The Indian rhinoceros calf remains with it's mother until it is at least 2 years old and big enough to become independent. Captive males breed at five years of age, but wild males attain dominance much later when they are larger. Captive females breed as young as four years of age, but in the wild, they usually start breeding only when six years old, which likely indicates they need to be large enough to avoid being killed by aggressive males. Their gestation period is around 15.7 months, and birth interval ranges from 34–51 months.

The prominent horn for which these rhinos are well known has also been their downfall. Many animals have been killed for this hard, hair like growth, which is revered for medicinal use in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The horn is also valued in North Africa and the Middle East as an ornamental dagger handle. The one-horned rhinoceros has been regarded as a vulnerable species as their population is extremely low due to hunting and poaching.

 Today, the Indian rhinoceros is an endangered animal and has been pushed into only a small fraction of its historical territory by human hunters and deforestation. Humans are the biggest threat to the Indian rhinoceros as they have been hunted to the brink of extinction for their horns. There are thought to be around 3,000 Indian rhinoceros individuals left in the wild, two thirds of which are believed to be in the Assam region of India.

Himalayan Salamander- The Himalayan Newt (Tylototriton verrucosus) Facing Extinction in Darjeeling Hills

                                        

           The Himalayan Newt (Tylototriton verrucosus) is a species of newt found in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The Himalayan Newt also called the Himalayan Salamander is one of the rarest and oldest amphibian creature existed before the giant dinosaurs to be found in the hills of Darjeeling, India. Scientifically it is known as Tylototriton verrucosus. It was once regarded as totally extinct from this planet Earth, but it was found living in the Hills of Darjeeling in 1964 at Jorepokhari, 20 km from Darjeeling. It is understood that this Himalayan Salamander is a very primitive and highly endangered species. It figures in the Red Data Book of IUCN and included in Schedule No 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 in India.

         
            The Himalayan Newt has rough skin, measuring up to the length of 20cm when it reaches full adulthood. They have five toes and the tail is flattened to aid swimming. The head is wide and the snout is short and the head has three prominent bony ridges. The legs are moderately long with the fingers and toes within webbing but are slightly flattened. The tail is at least as long as the head and body and is flattened to help in swimming. The skin is rough and the parotid glands are large with strong fold on the chin. The entire Newt is uniformly blackish brown, slightly paler on the lips, snout, chin, throat, and under surface of limbs. The lower edge of the tail is orange yellow. Salamander are differentiated from other amphibians (frogs and caecilians) conspicuously by the presence of a tail in all larvae, juveniles and adults, and by having limbs set at right angles to the body with forelimbs and hindlimbs of approximately equal size.

          The Salamander generally prefers to adopt shallow ponds of the hills which receive maximum sunlight. They usually feed on the diet like spider, scorpion, insects and some mollusc. They lay their eggs inside the water which sticks to the aquatic plants otherwise it would be very difficult for a Salamander to lay eggs in clean water. They lay the eggs easily by moving forwards and the eggs easily come out from the body. The Himalayan Newt is found at the elevation of Darjeeling Hills region from 4000 ft to 5000 ft. The Newts’ can be caught with no difficulty because of their sluggish movements. During day time its movement is rather slow but at night it becomes quite energetic and spirited. They breed during rainy season at the month of May-June, when it receives the season’s first shower in the month of May it comes out from the crevices, holes after six month of hibernation for mating and breeding at the pond or water logging areas.

        

            This tiny creature was also found at the Tiger Hill just adjacent to the Mandir where a small natural pond was in existence. This shallow pond was good enough for the Salamander for mating and breeding since time immemorial but the development work of DGHC blindly converted this natural habitat of Salamander into a cemented pond which destroyed all the natural processes in the year 2000-2001. At present a good habitat is in existence at Margret’s Hope T.E where a lake is present for the Salamander to lay eggs and the tadpoles to grow. Even at Pokhriabong Forest area where a marshy land exists, a good number of Salamanders were seen during summer months in the year 2007.

         The most congenial habitat of Salamander was the pond of Jorepokhri, just a few meters above of Sukhiapokhri, a village township, almost 20 km away from the Darjeeling town. It is this natural pond where a good number of Salamanders were found for the first time in the Hills of Darjeeling by the researchers in the year 1964. The Margret’s Hope Salamander Lake, Namthing Pokhari, Nakepani, Ran Dhap when re-established and propagation will be the centre of attraction in the hills and other areas catering to the needs of Nature Education, recreation and conservation.