Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC)

In response to reports of wildlife getting displaced from their habitats due to anthropogenic reasons like illegal trapping and wildlife trade and due to natural calamities like floods Brahmaputra Valley every year, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) signed an MoU with the Government of Assam for the establishment of the “Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC)” in the year 2001. Following this, CWRC was set up in the in the year 2002 in collaboration with the Assam Forest Department, and with the support of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

CWRC is situated in Borjuri, near Kaziranga National Park (KNP), Assam. The center was conceived as a rehabilitation facility for distressed or injured wild animals rescued during the floods that occur each year in KNP. In previous instances, rescued and confiscated animals were handed over to the zoo and as a result were deprived of their chances of being returned to the wild.

Objectives

The aim of CWRC is to rehabilitate wild animals back to the wild, following national and international protocols and guidelines. This would include:

• Rescue temporarily disadvantaged wild animals, which have been confiscated, injured, maimed, orphaned, sick and/or astray, Optimise the conservation and re-introduction potential of the rescued wild animals, Promote ethical and humane methods of handling, maintenance in captivity, and veterinary care, Where possible, pursue “return to the wild” option and contribute to wildlife reintroduction and restoring programs.

CWRC has been in operation for the last five years and has rehabilitated a large number of displaced wild animals.

Rhino Rehabilitation Station, Bansbari, Manas National Park, Assam

The rhino rehabilitation station is located in Bansbari range of Manas National Park in Assam. Manas had more than 100 rhinos in the past, but they were all wiped out in the last decade due to insurgency. In early 2006, WTI-IFAW moved a female rhino to Manas as part of the plan to reintroduce the species. On 28th January 2007, two more female rhinos were relocated from CWRC to Bansbari in Manas. All these rhino calves were admitted to CWRC during the floods.

All the three rhinos have been radio-collared to enable post release monitoring. The rhinos will be soft released, that is, they will be kept in their new enclosure for a considerable period of time to enable acclimatization before final release into the wild.
It is hoped that this effort will enable the successful reintroduction of the critically endangered species into Manas National Park.

Wild Buffalo Rehabilitation Station, Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, Assam

The wild buffalo rehabilitation station is located on a river island in Saikhowa range of Dibru-Saikhowa National Park in Assam. It consists of a twin boma to house the buffaloes and a watch tower for vigil against poachers.
The translocation of two wild buffaloes from CWRC to Dibru-Saikhowa was accomplished on 26th December 2006. The buffaloes, both male had come to CWRC as orphaned calves in 2002 and 2003 respectively. Both the calves were raised at CWRC in anticipation of their release sometime in the future.
A soft release method will be followed and the buffaloes will remain in their new surroundings for at least two years getting acclimatised to their new home before their ultimate release into the wild.
New wild buffalo calves that are admitted to CWRC will be relocated to Dibru-Saikhowa after being hand raised. There is currently one wild buffalo calf at CWRC waiting to be moved.

Elephant Reintegration Station, Doimari, Manas National Park, Assam

The elephant rehabilitation station is located in Doimari range of Manas National Park. This is the first time that that elephants are being rehabilitated in India. Successful attempts have earlier been made in Africa and Sri Lanka.

On 23rd February 2007, six Asian elephant calves (Elephas maximus) aged between two and a half to six years, were successfully moved from CWRC to Doimari range of Manas National Park. All the calves had come to CWRC after being orphaned or swept away by floods or trapped in tea estate trenches. They are currently being kept in a night stockade in Doimari and are taken into the forest daily by the keepers and rehabilitator.

The elephants will be rehabilitated by gradually reintegrating them into wild herds. This reintegration may occur at any time and therefore there is no fixed time limit for the elephants to be with their human companions. All the elephants have been radio-collared to enable post-release monitoring.

Sloth Bear Rehabilitation Station

This new project is a component of the Integrated Sloth Bear Conservation and Welfare (ISBCW) project that functions under support from the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA). 

The sloth bears used by the Kalandar community for the dancing bear tradition are caught from forests when they are very young. Often the mothers are killed to procure the cubs from the forest.

It is futile for Kalandars to receive bear cubs of more than five to six months age as they cannot be subdued and trained to their needs. Sloth bear trade studies have shown that bear cubs are caught from the wild when they are barely 1 to 3 months of age. The Sloth Bear Rehabilitation project aims to confiscate and rehabilitate such young bears into their natural habitats.

Currently five confiscated sloth bear cubs are being rehabilitated in Bhim Bandh Wildlife Sanctuary in Bihar. The earlier rehabilitation station was located at Achanakmar Wildlife Sanctuary in Chhattisgarh. Unlike most other projects of the Wild Rescue program, this project is the initiative of the Bihar Forest Department while the role of WTI is in technical assistance and coordination. 

Centre for Bear Rehabilitation and Conservation (CBRC)

With the support from the Animal Welfare Board of India, Govt. of India, WTI established the Center for Bear Rehabilitation and Conservation (CBRC) in the Pakke Wildlife Sanctuary to address the problem of orphaned Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) cubs. The centre was established in the year 2002 in collaboration with the Forest Department of Arunachal Pradesh and is being run in partnership with IFAW.         
 
Since its inception, the centre has handled thirteen Asiatic black bears. Spread in an area of four acres in an ideal habitat of undisturbed semi-evergreen forest, the centre provides food, shelter, veterinary care to the displaced bear cubs. The rescue centre can hold a maximum of twelve bears at a time in its facility of two small cub enclosures, five large holding pens (5x10x5 m), two huge covered enclosures (15x10x8 m), a pre-release orientation yard of 4,800 sq. mm and a quarantine facility.

Following unsuccessful attempts to rehabilitate bear cubs into the wild, WTI revised the rehabilitation protocol to conform to tropical conditions.

Walk the bear programme

As per this protocol, the bear cubs get gradually acclimatized to the habitat by taking them for walks on a daily basis by a person who acts as the surrogate mother. This enables the bears to gradually familiarize itself to the new environment, learn predator avoidance, obtain their own food and establish a territory.

The bear cubs are radio collared once they begin to show a tendency not to return to captivity. This process is expected to take three to six months.

Two bear cubs, Seppa and Seppi are currently undergoing “Walk the bear programme”. The programme was initiated on 15th August 2006 when the two cubs were just four months old. These two bear cubs have shown remarkable progress during the last few months and have been living independently since April 2007. Three more Asiatic black bear cubs will join the rehabilitation process in June 2007.

Mobile Veterinary Services (MVS)

Where there are no rehabilitation centres, WTI has placed Mobile Veterinary Service (MVS) units in select Protected Areas. As per Government of India norms, every Tiger Reserve and National Park is supposed to have a full time veterinarian. In reality, hardly any Tiger Reserves and National Parks in the country have a full time veterinarian.

Moreover, considering the vast wildlife areas in the country, it is humanly impossible to establish conservation rehabilitation centres everywhere. For that reason the most prudent option was to set up Mobile Veterinary Services (MVS) directly by WTI or in partnership with other conservation agencies.
 
An MVS unit consists of an ambulance, a wildlife veterinarian, an animal attendant, equipment and supplies. The entire unit functions under the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) of the Wild Rescue program. An MVS unit becomes a complete asset of WTI if all the components are provided by the same. Alternatively, the Wild Rescue program could support veterinarians who agree to work as per the SOP’s of WTI. In such cases, WTI could support one or more of the four components that comprise an MVS.

Placement of MVS units in areas is determined by two rationales:

Based on these criteria, MVS units are currently located in the following places

 Emergency Relief Network (ERN)

Where rehabilitation centres are absent and MVS units cannot reach, WTI has a network of committed volunteers and professionals whose services can be utilized to address a wildlife emergency. The IFAW-WTI Emergency Relief Network (ERN) is an initiative of the Wildlife Trust of India and the International Fund for Animal Welfare to bring on one platform, the rehabilitators working for India’s wildlife.

ERN is an online, email network of over 250 rehabilitators, professionals and volunteers, who can exchange, share and contribute their knowledge and professional skills to conserve and save wildlife.

Objectives