GUWAHATI: A gang of five poachers including a sharpshooter from Manipur, who were about to kill rhino at Orang National Park (ONP) in Assam, was arrested during a raid by forest officials and police on Sunday late evening.
Mangaldoi wildlife divisional forest officer, Sunnydeo Choudhury said that the poachers had already chalked out their plan to sneak into Orang, on the northern banks of Brahmaputra about 150 km from here, at 11 pm on Sunday.
"The poachers were sheltered in the house of one Mafijuddin at Bechimari village on the buffer of Orang Tiger Reserve. Soon after we got the tip-off about their presence, our forest team led by range officer Chakrapani Roy and police from Dalgaon police station swooped into the house of Mafijuddin at 10.35 pm and arrested them," Choudhury said.
The sharpshooter from Manipur has been identified Lian Dian Dingmuan.
"We are interrogating the arrested poachers for extracting more details and also about their past involvement in killing rhino," Choudhury added.
Also a .303 rifle along with 22 live cartridge, one silencer pipe, a machete and food stuff were seized from the poachers.
ONP, also known as mini Kaziranga, lost its first rhino to poachers this year so far after the carcass with horn missing was recovered on June 30. The park recorded zero poaching last year after several poaching attempts were foiled by the officials. In 2014 one rhino poached in Orang.
The park spread over 79.28 sq km has 100-odd rhinos. Orang is also a tiger habitat and was been declared tiger reserve covering an area of 492.46 sq km on February this year.
