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)

Guwahati: Principal opposition party in Assam, the All India United Democratic Front on Wednesday called upon the Centre to declare flood in the state as a national calamity and also sought a financial package of Rs 10,000 crore for flood-affected people.

AIUDF MLAs, including Hafiz Bashir Ahmed Azmi, Gul Akhtara Begum, Abdul Rahim Kham, Swapan Kar and Sherman Ali held a demonstration in front of the Raj Bhavan here and submitted a memorandum to Governor J B Patnaik.

“Lakhs of people have been displaced in the floods and there has been huge loss to agricultural land. The Centre should immediately declare the Assam floods as national calamity and declare a package of Rs 10,000 crore for the affected people,” AIUDF General Secretary (Organisation) and MLA Aminul Islam told reporters after the event. He accused the state government of not doing enough to help the flood affected people.”Flood and erosion have been affecting the state for years but no steps have been taken,” Islam said. The party also demanded stern action against poaching of animals, including rhinos at the Kaziranga National Park. “The NRC should be updated as per the Assam Accord of 1985. All the illegal immigrants who have come from across the border after March 25, 1971, should be identified and deported. “However, at the same time, the government should ensure that genuine Indian citizens are not harrassed in the name of religion or language,” Islam said. (PTI)

Agartala: The Agartala-Dhaka bus service, suspended after India’s ‘Maitree’ passenger bus running between the two cities was burnt by an angry mob in Bangladesh last month, resumed after an 11-day break Tuesday, officials said Wednesday.

“As earlier, from now onwards both Indian and Bangladeshi buses would ply six days a week between Agartala and Dhaka,” Tripura transport department secretary Kishore Ambuly told IANS.

“The Sep 21 incident was an isolated and a stray occurrence, not targeted at the Indian bus or passengers,” Ambuly said.

The Dhaka-bound ‘Maitree’ passenger bus, run by Tripura Road Transport Corporation, was torched by an angry mob at Narsindi in central Bangladesh Sep 21. Narsindi is 50 km northeast of Dhaka and 45 km west of Agartala.

According to Bangladesh media reports, the incident was a fallout of a clash between two local political groups.

The driver and conductor of the bus sustained minor injuries, while all 22 passengers and one of the three crew members escaped unhurt.

The bus service that covers 95 km distance, both India’s ‘Maitree’ and Bangladesh’s ‘Shyamali’, was suspended temporarily after the Narsindi incident.

The damaged Indian bus has brought back hare Sunday after official formalities were completed.

The Kolkata-Dhaka bus service running 242 km, the first direct surface communication between the two neighbouring countries, was initiated in July 1999 while the Agartala-Dhaka bus service was launched in September 2003.

The government-owned transport corporations of Bangladesh, West Bengal and Tripura are operating the bus services.

Meghalaya and other state governments of the northeast have also proposed to launch similar bus services between their states and important cities of Bangladesh.

The northeastern states are surrounded by Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and China and the only land route accessible to these states from India is through the Siliguri corridor in West Bengal – also called ‘Chicken’s neck corridor’ – and Assam.

To avoid hilly terrain with steep roads and multiple hairpin bends, which makes the journey and transportation difficult, time-consuming and expensive, a large number of people from the northeastern states, specially Tripura, go to Kolkata and other parts of India via Bangladesh. (IANS)