Poachers kill another rhino in Kaziranga

The Times of India , Saturday, March 14, 2015
Correspondent : Naresh Mitra
Guwahati: Poachers struck once again on Thursday evening as they killed a one-horned rhino in Kaziranga's Agoratoli forest range.

Poachers chopped off the horn of the pachyderm and fled. The incident occurs at a time park officials are busy intensifying operation against the killers. A police commando, deployed to assist the anti-poaching operation, was also killed in the encounter.

Overall, nine one-horned rhinos have been killed by poachers this year; of them eight have been killed in Kaziranga alone. The last killing was reported on March 4.

On Wednesday, the park authorities foiled a rhino poaching attempt by gunning down a poacher in an encounter on the western fringes of Kaziranga.

"It is very unfortunate that the rhino was killed despite our best efforts to curb the killings. In the coming days, we will further intensify our operation against poachers," state forest minister Atuwa Munda said.

Munda recently suspended a forest range officer of Kaziranga as part of disciplinary action for failing to stop poaching.

Despite the forest department's anti-poaching efforts, Kaziranga has been bearing the brunt of poachers' onslaught since January. There have been incidents of poaching in each month this year.

With 2000-odd rhinos, Kaziranga has the world's highest one-horned great Indian rhinos.

The spurt in poaching recently led Assam governor P B Acharya to hit out at the state government, saying that if the forest department authorities are unable to stop rhino killings, they should quit.

The governor's criticism over the spate of poaching brought him at loggerheads with the state government. Acharya, however, explained that he was trying to bring the issue of poaching to the state government's notice.

Wildlife crime experts said increasing demand of rhino horns in China and Vietnam, where they are often used to make traditional medicines, is to be blamed for the spurt in poaching.

Rhino horns are smuggled through porous international border between the Northeast states andMyanmar. Experts said the route through Nagaland's commercial hub Dimapur and Manipur's border town Moreh is mostly used for smuggling rhino horns and other wildlife animal parts to China, Vietnam besides other Southeast Asian countries.

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/Poachers-kill-another-rhino-in-Kaziranga/articleshow/46558515.cms
 


Back to pevious page



The NetworkAbout Us  |  Our Partners  |  Concepts   
Resources :  Databases  |  Publications  |  Media Guide  |  Suggested Links
Happenings :  News  |  Events  |  Opinion Polls  |  Case Studies
Contact :  Guest Book  |  FAQs |  Email Us