Divisional Forest Officer Tapas Das said, “Forty officials of the Wild Life wing, along with two kunki (trained) elephants, were pressed into action to push the mother-calf duo into forests.”

This is the second case of rhinos straying in less than a week. A male adult rhino had strayed from the core area of the Gorumara park on September 15 and went marauding through five villages in Mainaguri block of Jalpaiguri.

Recurrence of such incidents has left wildlife experts baffled. Though Friday’s incident is cited as a “stray” incident, Bengal’s success story in rhino conservation could have a host of adverse fall-outs.

The number of rhinoceros in Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary has increased from 14 to 122 in the last 21 years. This is a welcome departure from the days when the rhino population had come down to 12 in Jaldapara and six in the Gorumara National Park.

In 1986, the number of one-horned rhinoceros in Jaldapara was 14, which went up to 108 exactly two decades later.

Gorumara now has a rhino population of 30.

The straying could be an indicator that the rhinoceros population in Jaldapara and Gorumara has reached the threshold limit of the carrying capacity of the area.

“As of now, it still seems to be just within the limit. But an ever-increasing rhino population could trigger an ecological imbalance. There could be more strayings leading to man-rhino conflict which until now remain unheard of,” said Colonel Shakti Banerjee, Honorary Director, Wildlife Protection Society of India.