Guwahati | September 13, 2026
The greater one-horned rhinoceros has reached another major conservation milestone, with its global population now estimated at 4,075 animals—a remarkable recovery for a species that had been reduced to fewer than 100 individuals in the early 20th century.
India remains the species’ principal stronghold, supporting an estimated 3,323 rhinos, while neighbouring Nepal has around 752. Most significantly, Assam alone holds nearly 80 per cent of the global population, placing the state at the heart of the species’ survival and recovery.
From the brink of extinction to more than 4,000
The greater one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) once ranged widely across the floodplains and grasslands of the Indian subcontinent.
By the beginning of the 20th century, however, hunting and widespread habitat loss had driven the species dangerously close to extinction, with fewer than 100 believed to remain.
More than a century of protection has dramatically changed that picture.
The latest estimate of 4,075 rhinos is up from 4,014 in 2022, according to the International Rhino Foundation’s 2026 State of the Rhino assessment. The species is currently classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
Assam is the global rhino stronghold
No region is more important to the greater one-horned rhino than Assam.
The state’s floodplain grasslands, wetlands and forests support roughly four out of every five surviving animals worldwide.
At the centre of this population is Kaziranga National Park, which alone supports more than 2,600 rhinos, making it the single most important stronghold for the species.
But Assam’s rhino conservation landscape extends well beyond Kaziranga. Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Orang National Park and Manas National Park also harbour important populations, while Manas currently supports an estimated 40–50 rhinos.
A major victory against poaching
One of the most encouraging developments has been Assam’s success in reducing rhino poaching.
The state recorded zero known rhino poaching cases in 2025, only the second time since the 1970s that such a milestone had been achieved.
This represents a dramatic improvement from periods when poaching posed one of the most serious threats to the state’s rhinos.
Improved surveillance, stronger intelligence networks, better coordination between enforcement agencies and intensive protection on the ground have all contributed to the turnaround.
For an animal whose horn continues to make it a target of illegal wildlife trafficking, however, sustained vigilance remains essential.
Manas shows how lost populations can return
The recovery underway in Manas National Park provides another important chapter in Assam’s rhino story.
Rhinos had disappeared from Manas during years of civil unrest and heavy poaching. Conservationists subsequently began rebuilding the population through translocation and rehabilitation.
Between 2006 and 2021, 22 greater one-horned rhinos were translocated to Manas, while another 20 orphaned or injured animals were rewilded there.
The encouraging development is that the population is now reproducing naturally. Females born in Manas have themselves produced calves—a critical sign that restoration has moved beyond simply releasing animals.
The next challenge is habitat
Success has created a new conservation challenge.
As rhino numbers increase, protecting individual animals from poachers is no longer enough. Conservationists must ensure that growing populations have sufficient grasslands, wetlands, water sources and connected habitats.
Invasive vegetation can transform the tall and short grasslands on which rhinos and many other herbivores depend.
At Manas, conservation teams have already cleared invasive vegetation from 123 acres of degraded grassland, demonstrating how active habitat management is becoming an increasingly important part of rhino conservation.
The International Rhino Foundation similarly identifies habitat health as a significant obstacle facing Asian rhino conservation even as populations are being restored to parts of their former range.
Recovery is spreading beyond Assam
There are encouraging developments elsewhere in India as well.
In West Bengal, recent surveys recorded increases in the rhino populations of Jaldapara and Gorumara, which together have seen their numbers rise by about 50 per cent over the past decade.
Another important step came in March 2026 when four greater one-horned rhinos were moved into free-ranging grassland at Dudhwa, increasing the park’s free-ranging population to eight.
Such efforts are important because concentrating such a large proportion of the world’s population in a relatively small number of landscapes creates risks.
Disease outbreaks, catastrophic floods, habitat deterioration or a resurgence in poaching could have disproportionate consequences when most animals are clustered in only a few places.
One of conservation’s great comeback stories
The rise of the greater one-horned rhino from fewer than 100 animals to 4,075 demonstrates what sustained wildlife protection can achieve.
Strict protection, anti-poaching operations, habitat management, translocations and cooperation with local communities have together transformed the prospects of a species once perilously close to extinction.
Yet the milestone should not be regarded as the end of the conservation effort.
With 3,323 animals in India and approximately 80 per cent of the world’s population concentrated in Assam, the state now carries an extraordinary responsibility for the future of the species.
The next phase of the rhino recovery will therefore depend not only on preventing poaching but on protecting and expanding suitable habitat, restoring grasslands and ensuring that rhinos have enough safe landscapes into which their populations can grow.
For Assam, the record population is both a conservation triumph and a reminder of what is at stake.
A little more than a century ago, the greater one-horned rhino was on the verge of disappearing.
Today, 4,075 survive—and Assam has become the most important guardian of their future.
Source credit: India Today NE; additional information from the International Rhino Foundation’s State of the Rhino 2026 report.
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