Kaziranga:
A rhino was killed by poachers on Thursday in the world famous Kaziranga National Park (KNP) in upper Assam's Golaghat district, making it the fourth such incident in the state in the past one month, forest officials said.
Park foresters heard gunshots around 6 am in the Agratoli Range and immediately went to the area to find a bullet-injured female rhino in pain with her horn still intact, the officials said.
Though medical care was immediately provided to the endangered one-horned species, she succumbed to her injuries, they said.
The horn could not be taken away by the poachers as the foresters arrived at the site as soon as they heard the gun-shots, they said.
Agratoli Range of KNP has been cordoned off and over 100 forest staff were combing the forest to prevent the poachers from escaping, they said.
The giant mammal's carcass was recovered from the fringe of the Park, 220 km east of Guwahati.
Poachers last week at the Orang National Park in northern Assam again gouged out the horn of another rhino when it was alive, but the animal later succumbed to its injuries.
Rhinos have fallen to poachers attacks with at least 18 killed in 2008 and 14 in 2009. Between 1980 and 1997, some 550 rhinos were killed by poachers in the wilds of Kaziranga, the highest being 48 in 1992, Forest department sources said.
As per the 2009 census report, some 2,048 of the world's estimated 3,000 one-horned rhinos are in Kaziranga.
The concentration of the animal in KNP makes them an easy target of poachers, who kill them for their horns, which are believed to have aphrodisiac qualities and used as medicines for curing fever, stomach ailments and other diseases in parts of Asia.
A kilogram of the rhino horn fetches an estimated Rs 1.5 million in the international underground market, the sources added.
Middle East buyers also fancy rhino horns, which they favour to use as handles of ornamental daggers.
(With inputs from PTI)
Park foresters heard gunshots around 6 am in the Agratoli Range and immediately went to the area to find a bullet-injured female rhino in pain with her horn still intact, the officials said.
Though medical care was immediately provided to the endangered one-horned species, she succumbed to her injuries, they said.
The horn could not be taken away by the poachers as the foresters arrived at the site as soon as they heard the gun-shots, they said.
Agratoli Range of KNP has been cordoned off and over 100 forest staff were combing the forest to prevent the poachers from escaping, they said.
One rhino hasstrayed out of Kaziranga National Park and has already travelled around 30 kmstowards Majuli. The rhino is now at Afala Chapori and is being guarded by 18forest guards from Kaziranga and Golaghat division.
Sources haveinformed NDTV that a group of three poachers are closely following the rhino'smovement. On January 25, a strayed rhino was killed around the same location.
The giant mammal's carcass was recovered from the fringe of the Park, 220 km east of Guwahati.
Poachers last week at the Orang National Park in northern Assam again gouged out the horn of another rhino when it was alive, but the animal later succumbed to its injuries.
Rhinos have fallen to poachers attacks with at least 18 killed in 2008 and 14 in 2009. Between 1980 and 1997, some 550 rhinos were killed by poachers in the wilds of Kaziranga, the highest being 48 in 1992, Forest department sources said.
As per the 2009 census report, some 2,048 of the world's estimated 3,000 one-horned rhinos are in Kaziranga.
The concentration of the animal in KNP makes them an easy target of poachers, who kill them for their horns, which are believed to have aphrodisiac qualities and used as medicines for curing fever, stomach ailments and other diseases in parts of Asia.
A kilogram of the rhino horn fetches an estimated Rs 1.5 million in the international underground market, the sources added.
Middle East buyers also fancy rhino horns, which they favour to use as handles of ornamental daggers.
(With inputs from PTI)
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