Another rhino poached in Jaldapara, seventh in a year

The Times of India , Monday, July 06, 2015
Correspondent : Pinak Priya Bhattacharya
JALPAIGURI: Foresters at Jaldapara National Park on Saturday morning recovered a carcass of an adult male rhino from the Bania beat inChilapata range. The carcass had its horn missing.This is the seventh rhino carcass recovered from Jaldapara over the past one year.An autopsy of the carcass revealed that it shot dead at least five days ago. By the time pa trolling parties could trace the carcass, the horn had been chopped off.

Incidents of poaching are not new to Jaldapara. Over 70 rhinos have been poached here since 1951. Poaching reached its peak between 1968 and 1972, with as many as 28 rhinos being killed.

In October 2009, a gang of hunters shot and injured a rhino, which then escaped from the forest only to be confronted by villagers armed with stones and sticks. The frightened animal fell into the Torsha River and died. In June 2011, a poaching bid was foiled at Jaldapara after foresters on patrol located the poachers and chased them out.

The Jaldapara National Park is among four forest tracts in India where the one-horned rhino can be seen in the wild. The others are Assam's Kaziranga and Manas national parks and Bengal's Gorumara National Park. Rhinos can also be seen in the Terai region of Nepal. There are about 3,000 Indian rhinos in the wild, half of them in Kaziranga alone. Jaldapara has around 200 animals and attracts thousands of tourists every year.

Conservationists blame lack of staff for the consistent poaching of animals in Bengal. According to Animesh Basu of Himalayan Nature and Adventure Foundation, the forest department has a staff shortage -by 36% -at present.

"Whenever we ask to fill up the posts, officials give us assurances. But nothing happens. It is because of the staff shortage that the gap between foresters and forest villagers is increasing, giving rise to poaching and timber smuggling," Basu complained.

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Another-rhino-poached-in-Jaldapara-seventh-in-a-year/articleshow/47947371.cms
 


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