Delhi - The one-horned rhino lives.

Seven months after flooding drowned 39 of the endangered leathery behemoths, and forced hundreds to flee, a census at Kaziranga National Park in Assam, northeast India, revealed an increase in rhino of more than 40% over five years. The census found 1 649 rhinos, while the rest of the state has 120.

Thirty years ago, rhinos in the park, the world's principal reserve for the species, seemed on the brink of extermination.

Poached principally for their horn, their numbers in 1966 were downt o 366. Protection led to a recovery, with 1 229 animals counted in 1991.

- The Independent, London