A co-ordination meeting at the park today decided to take help of the BSF “as and when” required in view of the rising incidents of poaching.

“The BSF will provide all help to the park authorities including sharing of intelligence,” a senior forest official said today.

Senior officials of the forest department, park authorities, police and security forces attended the meeting.

This, incidentally is also the first time that help from the BSF is being taken.

Addressing a news conference in Nagaon today, forest minister Rockybul Hussain said special emphasis would be laid for protection of Kaziranga National Park.

“Armed operations against poachers will continue both inside and outside the park and the BSF and local police will be engaged along with forest staff for it,” he said.

He said the BSF would help the park staff keep a check on the movement of poachers and patrol the park’s boundary for the next two years.

“A post of nodal officer (intelligence) will be created in the forest department, especially for Kaziranga. The officer will co-ordinate among forest, police and BSF personnel,” he said.

Five rhinos have fallen prey to poachers already this year while 14 were killed last year in the national park.

Concerned over the spate of rhino killings, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) has demanded deployment of army in all the national parks to prevent poaching.

“The government must launch ruthless army operations to bust the poaching network,” AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya told The Telegraph from New Delhi.

The forest department is already calling for effective co-ordination and help from other enforcement agencies.

“The idea is to build up intelligence and for that, one has to co-ordinate with other agencies,” a forest official said.

Authorities of the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park have already taken the help of the army to conduct regular patrols along with forest guards.