From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Recovery of two more rhino carcasses sans the horn from two separate ranges of Kaziranga National Park (KNP), a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Assam, has triggered another round of public protest in the State over the failure of the authority to protect the precious one-horned rhinos.
With the recovery of the two carcasses on Friday the number of rhinos poached inside the national park so far this year has gone up to 14. Carcass of one rhino was located at Kanchanjuri under Bagori Range of the Park while the other was recovered from Agartoli Range.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (Independent) on Saturday decried the failure of the incumbent Assam government to prevent killing of one-horned rhinoceros in the KNP despite its ‘tall claim’ over enhanced deployment of forces armed with sophisticated weapons.
The ULFA hawks in an e-mailed statement to the media called upon the people of Assam to demand withdrawal of all forces from Kaziranga Park for their failure to protect the rhino and demanded that the responsibility of protection of Kaziranga resources should be handed over to
fringe area villagers.
The ULFA faction stated that it would cooperate with villagers in protecting the rhino and other resources of the Park.
“The people of Assam have no other option but to press for withdrawal of all government forces engaged for protection of Kaziranga Park resources and entrust the responsibility to the people living in villages in the fringe area around the national park. In such a case, ULFA will solidly cooperate with the people not only in keeping poachers at bay but also rooting out poachers for good,” the ULFA statement said.
The outfit claimed that it had already apprised the people of Assam about the routes taken by rhino poachers to enter Kaziranga Park long back.
“Still those routes have remained unmanned raising suspicion about involvement of a section of senior forest official and staff behind unabated rhino poaching in the Park,” the ULFA faction stated.
“Arrests of one or two rhino poachers occasionally by the authorities in Kaziranga Park is mere eyewash as the real poachers are continuing with killing of rhinos under the patronage of certain powerful quarters,” the militant outfit stated.
