Guwahati: In the first poaching incident at Kaziranga National Park this year, the carcass of a rhino was found in the western range of the park in Assam’s Nagaon district Sunday. Poachers decamped with the horn after killing the animal “about 6-7 days ago,” Director of Kaziranga National Park, Ramesh Kumar Gogoi told ThePrint.
The carcass was detected by forest staff of the Kathpura camp at the Bagori range around 4:30 pm. It was found floating at the Bormer beel, a water body under the camp’s jurisdiction, located at an aerial distance of a kilometre. From the site of the incident, it is a zig-zag trail through the thick forest.
“There was a cut-mark on the nasal bone of the rhino, and the horn was taken away by miscreants. Investigation is on to track the poachers. Details can be revealed after receiving the post-mortem report,” Gogoi added.
He also informed of a .303 rifle bullet recovered from the site that apparently misfired during poaching.
“We had no reports of gunshots being fired in the past few days. Since the carcass was found floating, it is difficult to ascertain the sex and age of the rhino,” Gogoi said.
Spread across an area of 430 square kilometres, Kaziranga is home to over 2,600 one-horned rhinoceros, according to the 2022 estimate.
Earlier in January this year, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that no poaching incidents were reported in the state in 2022 — in Kaziranga, Manas, Orang national parks, or the Pobitora wildlife sanctuary, for the first time since 1977.
Meanwhile, Assam Director General of Police, GP Singh, told ThePrint he would soon be going to Kaziranga to review the progress of the investigation with forest and police officials.
“We are the voice of the voiceless. We would leave no stone unturned to get to the perpetrators,” GP Singh assured.
(Edited by Tarannum Khan)
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