Jorhat, April 14: A male rhino was killed and its horn taken away by poachers at Kaziranga National Park on Wednesday night, hours after Britain’s Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took a jeep safari in the park.
The carcass of the rhino, with its horn missing, was recovered from near the Pothalibeel area under the Burapahar range of the park, the divisional forest officer of Kaziranga, Subhashis Das, said.
Prince William and wife Kate, on a week-long tour of India and Bhutan, rode in an open-topped jeep through the park, spotting a pair of rhinos in a lagoon, as well as water buffalo and swamp deer.
Poachers killed the rhino 25km from the Diphlu river lodge, where the royal couple spent the night before leaving for Bhutan on Thursday morning.
Poachers also engaged in a gun battle with the forest guards. A large number of empty cartridges of AK-47 assault rifles were recovered from the site.
The royal couple left early Thursday morning and had not been told about the killing, forest officials said.
A forest official said that gunshots were heard in the area at around 11.30pm and immediately forest guards rushed to the place.
“The guards accosted the group of poachers and engaged in a gun-battle but the poachers managed to escape under the cover of darkness by firing at the forest guards,” he said.
This is the seventh rhino killed at the national park this year. A couple of days back another rhino was killed at the national park.
Kaziranga is home to two-thirds of the world’s dwindling population of one-horned rhinos.
The royal couple was keen to learn about efforts to combat poachers and how the wildlife affects villagers living near the park, spread across 430 square km.
”We felt good when the prince came to the park. We are lucky to interact with the prince,” said forest ranger Salim Ahmad, adding that William had asked about the problems faced in the park and anti-poaching efforts.
The one-horned Indian rhinoceros is one of five species in the world. Global conservation group WWF estimates that fewer than 3,000 of the animals survive today. They are found mostly in north-eastern India, with a few hundred in neighbouring Nepal.
The rhinos in Kaziranga live in swamps, forests and tall thickets of elephant grass, where poachers hide before trapping them with poison, or just shooting them dead.
