Rhinoceros pulling a plough—fact or fiction?

Abstract

Some stories tend to lead their own life in the media and are repeated without any idea how they came about. One instance is the tale, usually set in Assam, that rhinos could be tame enough to be used by farmers to pull ploughs in the fields (Stracey 1963:98, Dutta 1991:151, Geer 2008:383, Mazumdar and Mahanta 2016:19). Perhaps, but when did this practice change, as surely currently no rhinoceros can be seen anywhere used in this way.