Guwahati: A freshly-removed rhino-horn was recovered from a car that had met with an accident at Baihata Chariali near here. Three of the four occupants of the car – all believed to be residents of Manipur – were killed including two on the spot.
“A Chevrolet Spark car (AS01 AH 0487) coming towards Guwahati rammed into a bus from behind at Baihata Chariali on early Tuesday. While two occupants of the car died on the spot, one died on the way to hospital. Police recovered a freshly removed rhino-horn with flesh and blood, a wooden butt of gun and some substance suspected to be contraband drugs. All the four occupants of the car are believed to hail from Manipur,” Kamrup Superintendent of Police, Partha Sarathi Mahanta said.
Police and the forest department suspected that the rhino must have been killed either in Kaziranga National Park or Rajiv Gandhi (Orang) National Park. Police were also trying to track down the owner of the car which has a Guwahati registration number, the SP said.
Assam forest minister Pramila Rani Brahma said the four persons who were traveling with the rhino horn could be members of an inter-state gang of poachers who had either killed the rhino themselves, or had collected the horn it from the actual poachers.
“Forest officials have already carried out a massive search operation inside Kaziranga and Orang national parks to find out if any rhino was killed in the past 24 hours, but have not found any carcass till Tuesday afternoon. There is possibility of a stray rhino being killed somewhere in some swampland or river-bank outside some of these two national parks,” the minister said.
“Both police and forest officials who examined the rhino horn found that it with a lot of flesh and blood stain with which has made them believe that the rhino was killed in on Monday. “Going by the size and weight of the horn, it looks like that of young adult rhino,” a forest official said.
Forest minister Brahma meanwhile informed that forest personnel in recent weeks recovered Chinese-made rubber boats and other items that poachers have used to enter Kaziranga National Park through the river route.
“Poachers have started using the Brahmaputra River to enter Kaziranga by boats by flowing with the water so that there was no sound. Guards have also recovered tranquiliser darts and bows and arrows inside Kaziranga Park recently,” she said.
