Two endangered one-horned rhinos killed since Dec 14
From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Forest staff in the renowned abode of one-horned rhinoceros in Kaziranga National Park in Assam are being challenged by a well-armed gang of poachers who have killed two rhinos since December 14 in the fringe areas of the Park and decamped with the horn making mockery of the security arrangement in the Park.
A source in the state forest department said that a gang of poachers comprising of 12 members had been involved in killing of the two rhinos around the Park since December 14. The poachers are suspected to be hiding in Brahmaputra rive isles on the fringe area of the Park.
The source claimed that members of the poachers’ gang had been identified and a team of 15 well-trained forest staff have been assigned to trace the gang.
The gang is equipped with at least five .303 rifles which is believed to be the most effective weapon to kill a rhino.
The forest officials have been raiding various human habitat in river isles located on the northern fringe of the Park to trace the poachers. The department has sought help of state police force and local NGOs to nab the poachers.
With the latest killing of two rhinos, the total number of rhinos poached in and around the KNP during the year gone up to nine. At least four other rhinos died naturally in the Park during the year. Poachers killed 11 rhinos in the Park during the year 2010.
Kaziranga National Park has the largest population of endangered one-horned Indian rhinoceros in the globe. According to the last rhino census carried out in 2010, the number of rhinos in Kaziranga was put at 2048. The rhino population in the protected area is always under threat from inter-state gangs of poachers.