Badak ini pernah merayau sepanjang utara India dari Peshawar hingga ke Burma. Sekitar 5,000 tahun dahulu, ia mendiami Lembah Indus di Pakistan. Akibat kemusnahan habitat dan perubahan cuaca julat mereka perlahan-lahan berkurangan sehinggakan menjelang abad ke-19, mereka hanya masih hidup di padang rumput Terai di selatan Nepal, bahagian utara Uttar Pradesh, bahagian utara Bihar, bahagian utara Bengal, dan di Lembah Brahmaputra di Assam.[14]

On the former abundance of the species, Thomas C. Jerdon wrote in 1874 in the Mammals of India:

This huge rhinoceros is found in the Terai at the foot of the Himalayas, from Bhotan to Nepal. It is more common in the eastern portion of the Terai than the west, and is most abundant in Assam and the Bhotan Dooars. I have heard from sportsmen of its occurrence as far west as Rohilcund, but it is certainly rare there now, and indeed along the greater part of the Nepal Terai; ... Jelpigoree, a small military station near the Teesta River, was a favourite locality whence to hunt the Rhinoceros and it was from that station Captain Fortescue, of the late 73rd N.I., got his skulls, which were, strange to say, the first that Mr. Blyth had seen of this species, of which there were no specimens in the Museum of the Asiatic Society at the time when he wrote his Memoir on this group.

—Jerdon, T. C. 1874 The Mammals of India.

hari ini, julat mereka merosot kepada beberapa poket di selatan Nepal, utara Bengal dan di Lembah Brahmaputra. pada tahun 1980-an, badak sering kali dilihat di kawasan padang sempit Taman Negara Diraja Sungai Manas di Bhutan. pada awal 1980-an, skim pemindahan badak dimulakan. pasangan badak pertama diperkenalkan dari Nepal Terai ke Taman Negara Lal Suhanra di Punjab, Pakistan pada 1982. Pada 1984, lima ekor badak dipindahkan ke Taman Negara Dudhwa -- empat dari lapangan di luar Taman Perlindungan haiwan Liar Pabitora dan satu dari Goalpara.[14]