Guwahati, Jan 20: The carcass of an adult female rhino was detected in the Kohora range of the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) by forest officials on Thursday morning.
KNP field director P. Sivakumar confirmed that it was a case of poaching and that the adult rhino appeared to have been killed over a fortnight back.
“The carcass was found today by staff of Hilekhonda camp at 8.45 am. The place of occurrence was inside tall elephant grass about one kilometre away from the camp. It is a poaching case and the horn has been taken away by poachers. The time of death of the adult female rhino appears to be more than 15 days old,” Sivakumar informed on Thursday evening.
This is the first case of rhino poaching in the state since the past nine months.
It may be mentioned that rhino poaching in Assam has drastically decreased in the past four years with just one case reported from Kaziranga National Park in April last year.
The state government had last year formed the Anti-Poaching Task Force (APTF) to curb rhino poaching at Kaziranga National Park.
Reportedly, two rhinos were killed in the state in 2020, three in 2019, seven in 2018 and six in 2017.
Rhino poaching in Assam was at its peak in 2013 and 2014 with 27 rhinos killed in each of the two years, reports state.
Between the years 2000 and 2015, as many as 153 rhinos were poached in the state.