Assam rhino poachers may have killed Buxa jumbo

The Times of India , Tuesday, April 09, 2013
Correspondent : Pinak Priya Bhattacharya
JALPAIGURI: A day after an adult tusker was shot dead at the South Raidak range in Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) by some poachers, forest department officials suspect that gangs involved in poaching of rhinos in northeast have sneaked into the state and are targeting the jumbos.

"The bullet found in the body of the elephant is not the one used in this region to drive away elephants. We therefore suspect that it's the handiwork of poachers from northeast," said R P Saini, field director of BTR.

Chief wildlife warden N C Bahuguna said that such pellets, locally known as Chharra, are used by villagers in northeast and Nepal to shoo away the tuskers. "The pellets used by the villagers here are much smaller in size. So, chances of involvement of poaching gangs from northeast and Nepal can't be ruled out," he added.

According to him, the miscreants chopped off the elephant's head before taking away the tusks. "This is a very brutal way to kill an animal. The villagers here can't be so aggressive," Bahuguna added.

According to the chief wildlife warden, the department would soon recruit 100 forest guards to step up vigil in the forests. Sensing the intensity of the incident, the department has decided to take help from the villagers who live in and around forests like BTR and Jaldapara. "We will ask them to be alert and inform the department on noticing any suspicious activities in and around the forest," a senior forester said.

The forest department has so far detained two persons in connection with the elephant death on Saturday.

Recently, as many as 20 rhinos were poached in the forests of Assam for their horns. A total of 524 rhinos have been killed for their horns in Assam between 1986 and 2011.

It is believed that the poachers have crossed over to Bengal after the Assam government took up the issue seriously and beefed up vigil in the forests there.

The tusker, around 25-year-old, was poached late on Saturday. This is the second such incident in the forest in little over a month. On February 28, an elephant was killed in the Panibari range of Buxa forest and the foresters found a poison-coated pellet in its chest.

In June, last year, some miscreants took out the tusks of a jumbo after it succumbed to its ailments at the Khuttimari forest in North Bengal. The tusks were later recovered from a water body near Khuklung forest village, about 1.5 kilometres from the spot where the tusker was found dead.

The tusks were kept in a container and drowned in a waterbody, so that the department officials could not find it. While one tusk weighed around 23 kilos, the other was 20 kilos heavy.

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Assam-rhino-poachers-may-have-killed-Buxa-jumbo/articleshow/19452139.cms
 


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