A wildlife rehabilitation centre created to respond to animals injured and displaced around Kaziranga has now crossed one of the biggest milestones in Indian wildlife rescue.
The Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) at Panbari near Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve has entered its 25th year of service, having responded to more than 10,000 wildlife rescue cases since it was established on August 28, 2002.
Nearly 68% of animals handled through CWRC and its allied Mobile Veterinary Service units have been successfully treated and released back into the wild, according to the Wildlife Trust of India.
Those numbers represent far more than emergency rescues.
Over the past two decades, the centre has evolved into a science-led system for treating injured wildlife, hand-raising orphaned young, responding to annual floods, preparing animals for release and contributing to long-term reintroduction programmes across Assam.
From emergency response to organised wildlife rehabilitation
CWRC was established at a time when Assam urgently needed a dedicated facility capable of dealing with wild animals injured, orphaned or displaced by floods and other emergencies.
Its location close to Kaziranga was especially important.
Every monsoon, rising water can inundate large parts of the floodplain ecosystem, forcing rhinos, deer, elephants, wild buffaloes and other animals to move towards higher ground. Some become stranded, injured or separated from their mothers.
CWRC developed around the principle that rescued wildlife should not automatically spend the rest of its life in captivity.
Where medically and behaviourally possible, the objective is rehabilitation and eventual return to the wild.
That philosophy remains central to the centre’s unusually high release rate.
More than 10,000 rescue cases — nearly 68% returned to the wild
According to WTI’s latest figures, CWRC and its associated Mobile Veterinary Service teams have now responded to over 10,000 wildlife rescue cases.
Nearly 68% were successfully treated and released.
In August 2025, WTI had reported more than 9,500 rescue cases and a release rate of around 63%, making the latest milestone a clear step up in both volume and successful releases.
Two Mobile Veterinary Service units extend CWRC’s reach across eastern and western Assam.
These teams can respond directly to wildlife emergencies, provide veterinary treatment in the field, transport animals requiring specialised care and assist with rehabilitation and release.
For animals that cannot simply be treated and released immediately, recovery may take months or even years.
Rhino calves have become one of CWRC’s defining conservation stories
Among the centre’s most recognised patients are orphaned and injured greater one-horned rhinoceroses.
WTI says CWRC has rehabilitated more than 25 rhinos back into the wild.
Rhino calves rescued during floods can require intensive long-term care, particularly when they have been separated from their mothers.
The objective is not permanent captivity, but to keep the animal healthy while preserving the behaviour and independence needed for life in the wild.
That rehabilitation work later became part of a larger conservation programme.
Since 2006, CWRC has played a role in reintroducing rehabilitated rhinos into Manas National Park, helping return animals not only to the wild but to landscapes where their presence contributes to species recovery.
The centre works far beyond rhinos
CWRC’s 25-year record stretches across a wide range of species.
The centre has worked with Asiatic black bear cubs, including rehabilitation efforts in Manas and Dihing Patkai National Park.
Rescued wild buffaloes have been rehabilitated in landscapes including Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and the Laokhowa-Burachapori wildlife complex.
The facility has also cared for and rehabilitated hoolock gibbons, one of India’s only ape species, alongside many other mammals, birds and reptiles arriving through rescue cases.
Each species requires a different rehabilitation strategy, combining veterinary medicine with ecology, animal behaviour and field conservation.
Assam’s annual floods remain one of CWRC’s biggest challenges
Flood response continues to be one of the most visible parts of CWRC’s work.
Kaziranga is a naturally flood-dependent ecosystem, and seasonal flooding plays an important ecological role by replenishing wetlands and grasslands.
But severe floods can also leave animals stranded, exhausted or injured.
CWRC teams work alongside the Assam Forest Department during these periods, providing emergency veterinary care and attempting to reunite young animals with their mothers wherever possible.
Where possible, apparently orphaned calves or juveniles are reunited with their mothers rather than taken into long-term care, keeping the final objective focused on life in the wild.
A partnership model behind the rescue system
CWRC is jointly run by the Assam Forest Department and Wildlife Trust of India, in partnership with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
Its institutional history also includes support from the Government of India’s Animal Welfare Division, which helped make initial funding available during the centre’s establishment.
The facility is recognised by the Central Zoo Authority, while current conservation work has also involved support and collaboration with institutions including the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the College of Veterinary Science in Guwahati.
The partnership matters because wildlife rehabilitation requires government authority, veterinary expertise, trained keepers, field teams and access to suitable release landscapes.
Rescue is only successful if the animal can live wild again
The most important measure of a rehabilitation centre is not simply how many animals enter its gates.
It is what happens after treatment.
CWRC’s approach places heavy emphasis on restoring natural behaviour and evaluating whether an animal is fit to survive independently.
Animal keepers may spend months caring for orphans while gradually reducing human dependence, as veterinarians and biologists assess recovery, behaviour and release readiness.
That long process explains why a 68% release rate is central to CWRC’s milestone.
The statistic represents thousands of animals that did not merely survive an injury or flood, but returned to functioning wild populations.
CWRC is becoming a training hub as well
The centre’s impact now extends beyond the animals it directly treats.
WTI says CWRC has developed into a training facility for wildlife rescue veterinarians, biologists and conservation practitioners.
As India faces rescue challenges linked to floods, habitat fragmentation and human-wildlife conflict, training more professionals can extend lessons developed in Kaziranga to other landscapes.
CWRC is now positioning itself to develop further as a Centre of Excellence for wildlife rescue and rehabilitation in India.
More than a rescue count
Crossing 10,000 cases is impressive, but CWRC’s conservation value is ultimately reflected in animals that return to the wild: rhino calves, black bear cubs, hoolock gibbons, wild buffaloes and thousands of others.
As CWRC enters its 25th year, its record shows how wildlife rescue can become something more than crisis response.
When veterinary science, government agencies, conservation organisations, animal keepers and field teams work within the same system, rehabilitation can contribute directly to species conservation.
For Assam — a state where exceptional biodiversity exists alongside recurring floods and growing human-wildlife pressures — that model has become an increasingly important part of protecting animals when nature, injury or conflict puts them in danger.
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