Guwahati:
Poachers have killed six rhinos this year alone at the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park in Assam, but last night their luck ran out.
Two poachers were shot dead after they killed a female rhino and hacked her horn.
The park authorities had anticipated that poachers may enter the sanctuary under the cover of Diwali festivities.
"Orang is a smaller park of only 78 sq km and is an important rhino and tiger habitat," said Sushil Daila, DFO, Mangaldai Division.
The park has been bleeding with a vulnerable wildlife population, and its management is helpless with the government failing to fill up vacancies and regularise casual workers.
The park has 31 forest camps and each camp requires a minimum of six guards. Currently, there are no more than two guards. Forty nine persons are on the pay roll, but 16 of them are not fit enough which brings down the effective strength to 33.
Also, there are employees who haven't been regularised for the last 25 years and now they have threatened to commit mass suicides after their agitation has failed to evoke any response.
Low on motivation and asked to fight with obsolete weaponry, the park authorities have started taking help of the Army to dominate the area encroached dangerously by fringe villages.
But it's the forest guard fighting from the front who needs to be empowered to combat poaching of wildlife.