The greater one-horned rhino is the largest of the rhino species. Once found across the entire northern part of the Indian sub-continent, rhino populations were severely depleted as they were hunted for sport and killed as agricultural pests. This pushed the species very close to extinction in the early 20th century and by 1975 there were only 600 individuals surviving in the wild.
Thanks to rigorous conservation efforts, their numbers have increased dramatically since 1975. By 2015, conservation efforts saw the population grow to 3,555 in the Terai Arc Landscape of India and Nepal, and the grasslands of Assam and north Bengal in northeast India.
The greater one-horned rhino is identified by a single black horn about 8-25 inches long and a grey-brown hide with skin folds, which give it an armor-plated appearance. Greater one-horned rhinos are solitary creatures, except when sub-adults or adult males gather at wallows or to graze. Males have loosely defined home ranges that are not well defended and often overlap. They are primarily grazers, with a diet consisting almost entirely of grasses as well as leaves, branches of shrubs and trees, fruit and aquatic plants.
HABITAT LOSS
The enormous reduction in the range of rhinos was mainly caused by the disappearance of alluvial plain grasslands. Today, the need for land by the growing human population is a threat to the species. Many of the protected areas with rhinos have now reached the limit of the number of individuals they can support. This leads to human-rhino conflict as rhinos leave the boundaries of the protected areas to forage in the surrounding villages. Rhinos, mainly females, reportedly kill several people each year in India and Nepal.
