Jorhat, March 23: At a time the forest department is readying for another headcount of rhinos at Kaziranga National Park from tomorrow, the population of the park’s prized animal decreased by one with poachers striking again last night.
A rhino was shot dead at 1.30am near the Borholla forest camp under the park’s Burapahar range. The carcass was recovered this morning. Forest department sources said the poachers took away the horn before the forest guards could arrive. Empty cartridges of AK-47 and .303 rifles were recovered from the site.
A two-day counting of rhinos will begin at Kaziranga tomorrow. The park had 2,290 rhinos according to the last (2012) census. This was the tenth rhino to have been killed at the park this year. Assam witnessed the killing of a dozen rhinos this year with the two others being killed at Manas National park and Morigaon. Three rhinos were killed at the Burapahar range alone this year, which includes last night’s incident. In November and December last year, three other rhinos were killed at the Burapahar range. Empty cartridges of AK-47 rifles were recovered from all these incident sites.
“It is a possibility that the same group of poachers is involved in all the killings which took place at the Burapahar range,” a Kaziranga official said. He said the poachers descend from the Karbi Anglong hills and kill rhinos along the Burapahar range and escape under cover of thick forests on the hilly terrain. “It is very difficult to conduct anti-poaching operations in these areas because of the inaccessible terrain,” the official added.
He said that forest guards had engaged in encounters with poachers at the Burapahar range at least three times recently but they managed to escape. “These poachers are armed with automatic weapons and are very dangerous. On a few occasions poachers had opened fire at the guards,” the official said. Karbi Anglong police had recovered an AK-47 rifle from a poacher arrested last year.
The carcass of another rhino was recovered from Makrajuri area in the adjacent Karbi Anglong hills yesterday. Park officials claimed that the young rhino died about a fortnight back.
In another development, Sonitpur police arrested a poacher Hanif Ali yesterday. Ali was involved in the killing of rhino from Kariyani village under Biswanath Chariali police station in the district. According to the police, two of his friends were arrested today when they tried to bribe the circle inspector of Biswanath Chariali for Ali’s release.
