Rescuing one-horned rhino calves and conserving India’s ecosystems

A refuge in the forest 

The Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), a joint venture between IFAW, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), and the Assam Forest Department, is the only facility in India that rescues, hand-raises, rehabilitates, and then releases stranded, injured, and orphaned animals. While they work year-round with various animals, the monsoon season is always one of the most critical times of the year for rescue. 

CWRC takes in animals stranded by the floods, often young elephants and rhinos, and releases them when weather and environmental conditions have improved. While many animals need only a few days in rehabilitation, some become long-term residents due to their age or medical conditions. 

Though she recovered, she could not return to the wild without a mother to rear her. The caregivers named her Chandra. Under the protection and care of the CWRC staff, and with the companionship of other rhinos, Chandra began to thrive. 

An adoptive younger brother 

One year later—almost to the day—WTI was called in to investigate the squeaks and cries of a wild animal heard near one of the villages of the Kohora Range. There they found a greater one-horned rhino calf, only a few weeks old. WTI set out an aerial search for his mother, but she was nowhere to be found. Reuniting an orphan with their family is always the first goal, but it often is not attainable. So, this little rhino got the next best thing: the opportunity to be raised at CWRC, where he will stay until he is ready for release. 

The caregivers named him Kanai, after Lord Krishna, and soon after he settled into CWRC, he was introduced to Chandra. Kanai took to her immediately, looking up to her like a big sister. Chandra is reserved and careful in all things, while Kanai explores without fear. These two seemingly opposite energies love to engage with one another, sharing companionship, play, and comfort and providing the caregivers with endless entertainment. 

Working together, growing together 

At WTI, orphans of every species contribute to each other’s care in ways humans cannot. Chandra and Kanai have been together for over three years now and will remain together until they are ready to be released. As they help one another grow and learn, they also help other orphans at CWRC. 

This unique, supportive family creates an exponentially greater impact than they would by themselves. Like Chandra and Kanai growing up together and helping others, IFAW and WTI working together are able to make an even bigger impact than working separately. 

Since its founding in 2002, CWRC has taken in three to 16 rhino calves every year. Once of age and able to survive on their own, they are released back to the wild. Some are released with radio collars, providing valuable information on their movement patterns, which allow IFAW and WTI to better understand and protect these wild populations. 

Conservation success is a journey, not a destination  

At the turn of the 20th century, only 400 greater one-horned rhinos remained in the world. In March 2025, it was estimated that more than 4,000 rhinos were alive and well, with 2,613 as of 2022 within the Kaziranga National Park, home to IFAW–WTI’s CWRC. The Masa Forest, the soft-release site for many of these rehabilitated rhinos, boasts half of its population thanks to CWRC’s efforts. And today, they are thriving, raising calves of their own. This same project has also helped rhino populations in Greater Manas National Park return and rebound. 

As a keystone species, rhinos are landscapers of the meadows and plains on which they tread. By wallowing in shallow watering holes, eating grasses, and spreading seeds, they engineer the landscape around them simply by living their lives.  

But their environment is under threat from invasive plant species, which they do not eat, and the encroachment of humans. Rhino habitat is being converted for cattle grazing and housing, fragmenting the landscapes where rhinos once roamed freely. Posing an additional challenge is the hunting of rhinos for the ivory trade. 

The IUCN lists the greater one-horned rhino as vulnerable due to all of these threats against them, but with IFAW and WTI working together, conservation efforts are yielding results. Anti-poaching campaigns, community engagement, and rescue and rehabilitation efforts all contribute to raising the rhino population. Chandra and Kanai would not be here without them, and they would not have the life they lead without each other. These two young rhinos will be back in the wild one day, healing the landscape with every step they take, creating a brighter future for their species and the planet.