Feb 10, 2023:
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took to Twitter on Friday to extend a ‘special invitation’ to Oscar winning American actor and environment activist Leonardo DiCaprio to visit the state’s Kaziranga National Park.
In response to the actor’s post in which he praised the Assam government for its efforts that resulted in zero poaching of one-horned rhinoceros in the state by 2022.
CM Sarma wrote, “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.”
The Academy-award winning actor wrote that the Assam government in 2021 had set out to end poaching of the greater one-horned rhinoceros in Kaziranga National Park following the killing of around 190 pachyderms for their horns between 2000 and 2021.
DiCaprio took to Instagram, where he said: “In 2021, the government of the Indian state of Assam set out to end the poaching of the Endangered Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros in Kaziranga National Park following the killing of around 190 animals for their horns between 2000 and 2021. In 2022, they met their goal and no rhinos were poached in the area for the first time since 1977.”
‘Kaziranga National Park is home to 2,200 Greater One-horned Rhinos, which is about two-thirds of the world’s population.”
“This triumph in India also comes with more good news, as @wwf also reports that the world population of the rare rhino soared to around 3,700 from about 200 at the turn of the 20th century,” the actor Di Caprio added.
