GUWAHATI: After Hollywood actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio praised the Assam government for ensuring zero poaching of the one-horned rhinocerous at Kaziranga National Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma invited the Academy Award winning actor to the state and the park.
"Preserving wildlife is integral to our cultural identity. We are dedicated to persevering and safeguarding our rich cultural heritage. Thank you for your kind words, @LeoDiCaprio, and I extend a warm invitation to you to visit @kaziranga_ and Assam," Himanta tweeted. Known for its powerful Twitter messages against social evils, Assam Police, which along with the state forest department worked to protect the iconic animal, also sent out a tweet to the Titanic hero.
"When the Wolf Of Wall Street praises the conservation efforts for Rhinos! Actor @LeoDiCaprio praised the stellar efforts of protecting the pride of Assam, the One Horned Rhino by GoA, under the leadership of Hon'ble CM Shri @himantabiswa. A moment of happiness for all of us," Assam Police tweeted. Last month, it was PM Narendra Modi who complimented the state government for reporting zero poaching of the globally famed one-horned rhinoceros in 2022.
Sharing a tweet by Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Modi had then tweeted, "This is great news! Compliments to the people of Assam, who have shown the way and been proactive in their efforts to protect the rhinos."
Saving the rhinos in Assam from poachers was one of the main issues over which Modi used to attack the previous Congress governments when he campaigned for the 2021 assembly election and flagged the arrest of rhino hunters as one of the biggest achievements of the first BJP government in the state.
The population of the greater one-horned rhino, which is found only in India, Nepal, and Bhutan, has for the first time crossed the 4,000-mark by registering a 167% rise in the last 42 years, scripting a wonderful conservation success story. This was revealed in the 2022 "State of Rhino" report of the International Rhino Foundation.
Prabin Kalita is a journalist at The Times of India and is curren...
Read MorePrabin Kalita is a journalist at The Times of India and is currently the Chief of Bureau (northeast). He has been reporting in mainstream Indian national media since 2001. He has been a field journalist reporting gamut of issues from India’s northeastern region and major developments in neighbouring countries like Myanmar, China, Bhutan and Bangladesh concerning India and northeastern region. He has been covering insurgency—internal and cross-border, politics, natural calamities, environment etc. He is a post-graduate in Geological Sciences from Gauhati University.
Read Less