DALGAON, Nov 10 – Police of Silbori outpost under Dalgaon police station reportedly recovered one hand-made rifle along with three rounds of ammunition recently from the house and campus of one Chand Miya of village Nalbari close to the Orang National Park. According to police source, two persons, namely Nabi Hussain and Jakir Hussain have already been arrested in this con nection but the involvement of Chand Miya could not be ascertained as he is away from home for a religious tour outside the country.
Police suspected that the arms were kept for poaching of rhino in the national park. This reveals the continuous threat to the rhinos in the park besides creating concern about the fate of the animals of various endangered species as the park authority in recent time has failed to miserably protect the rhinos as well as check the entry of poachers in the park although the government has reportedly deployed an additional force of about 200 armed Home Guard jawans and also appointed one new ACF for the security of the park.
Even though the park authority claimed to gun down two poachers on October 17 last, the park authority was not successful in checking the entry of the poachers and thereby allowing them to kill one adult female rhino. It may well be mentioned that one of the poachers Harmuj Ali killed on October17 was arrested some five months back by the then authority of the park from Morigaon district and he was reportedly released from jail only in the second week of October and the failure of the park authority to keep close vigil on the movement of the notorius poacher is one of the major loopholes in the intensified security measures in the park.
Meanwhile lack of coordination between the park authority and the district police has also come to light as the park authority did not feel the need of sharing the information of October 17 till 48 hours of occurrence of the incident although SP Darrang Imdadul Husain Bora refused to comment much on the matter saying that site of occurrence was outside Darrang district boundary.This has created confusion among the nature lovers of the district as Suresh Chand PCCF, Wild Life, Government of Assam in a press briefing in the park recently declared to make a well coordinated effort with the civil and police administration of both Darrang and Sonitpur districts and also to take the help of Army to trace the movements of the poachers and check their entry to the park.
