GUWAHATI: Poachers on Tuesday killed a female rhino translocated to Manas national park in Morigaon at Pharfuli area under Bansbari range of the park.
The animal had been brought to park from Pobitora wildlife sanctuary under the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 programme. She had given birth to a calf in March last year.
Park officials, who found AK-47 bullets near the spot, suspect the involvement of militants in the incident.
"At least 10 rounds of bullets were fired from the poachers' side. We fired back, but the poachers managed to escape," a park official said.
In October 2013, poachers had gunned down a rhino, also translocated to Manas from Pobitora.
The latest killing took the number of poaching-related rhino deaths in the park in 2013 to five.
Conservationists are concerned over rhinos becoming targets for poachers in Manas, which has just started to emerge from turbulent times.
The park lost all its 100-odd rhinos to poachers during the height of the Bodo political movement in the 1990s.
Manas was tagged World Heritage Site in Danger by Unesco in 1992 because of large scale destruction of park infrastructure and wildlife.
Manas eventually regained Unesco's World Heritage Site status in 2011m partly because of the successful translocation of rhinos under the Indian Rhino Vision programme.
