Guwahati: Accused of involvement in rhino poaching in Kaziranga National Park, a tribal militant outfit of Assam on Wednesday offered to protect the beasts and criticized the government for alleged failure to save this one-horned pride of the state.
The Karbi People’s Liberation Tigers (KPLT), a rebel group active mostly in Karbi Anglong district, has come forward to save and protect the rhinos from poachers if the government cannot do its duty.
A local television channel, quoting a top KPLT functionary, said the group has denied any involvement with poachers after the government named it in the recent poaching in the KNP, which borders Karbi Anglong.
The group accused the government of failing in its duty to protect the rhino and alleged that it was pointing fingers at the rebel outfit to hide its failure.
The KPLT leader maintained that the group was efficient enough to protect the rhinos that venture into Karbi Anglong, if entrusted with the responsibility and the government accepts its alleged failure.
State Forest Minister Rakibul Hussain had pointed to militant-poacher nexus in Karbi Anglong, which target rhinos that stray into the hill district to escape floods in KNP or in search of food at times.
The state had previously witnessed total annihilation of about 100 rhinos from the Manas National Park in Bodoland in the last decade of the previous century during peak Bodo militancy.
However, the same ultras, after returning to mainstream, have scripted a successful conservation story in Manas where translocated rhinos as well as other flora and fauna are now thriving.
While the militants are offering protection, the one-horned rhinoceros trapped since Sunday in a sandbar of the Brahmaputra river is unlikely to be rescued soon.
Officials of the Assam forest department told IANS Wednesday that they were waiting for the right time to tranquilise the rhino before airlifting it to one of the state’s protected areas near the sandbar.
The adult male rhino, suspected to have been washed away from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in the recent floods, got stuck in a sandbar called Rani Chapori, about 25 km west of Guwahati.
Locals spotted the rhino Sunday and informed the forest department.
“There are swamps in the sandbar. Any effort to tranquilise the animal might prove risky. If the rhino runs towards the river after we shoot the tranquiliser dart, rescue might get even more difficult,” said Assam’s Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Suresh Chand, talking to IANS Wednesday.
“We have organised round-the-clock security for the animal in the sandbar, no one can harm it there. Both the police force and forest personnel were deployed, and food is being provided to it there,” Chand said.
The Assam government had been trying to airlift the animal to Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary, using Indian Air Force choppers.
An IAF chopper flew to Rani Chapori sandbar several times Monday and Tuesday, and a chopper even landed on the sandbar despite mud and swamps.
The rhino, however, could not be tranquilised as there were fears that the animal might run deeper into the river and complicate the whole rescue mission.
“Trucks and other vehicles cannot reach the sandbar. So air lifting the animal after tranquilisation is really the only option. However, we are not sure when the opportune moment for firing the dart will present itself, we’re waiting,” Chand said. (Agencies)