Poachers had also killed a female rhino at the Kaziranga National Park.
The Assam police today busted a rhino horn trading group and arrested three people in Jorhat's Titabor town. The arrests come three days after poachers shot dead a rhinoceros at Kaziranga National Park.
One of those arrested is a Railway Protection Force constable. Police sources said that trains are regularly used to transport rhino horns out of Assam. A rhino horn weighing around 1 kg was also recovered from the traders.
Earlier during the week, the poachers had shot dead a rhinoceros at the sprawling sanctuary using AK 47 guns. The incident occurred
hours after Prince William and Kate visited the national park.
Poachers had also killed a female rhino at Kaziranga just two days before the Royal couple's visit. The horns of both animals were hacked off.
The Kaziranga National Park is a UNESCO world heritage site and home to the world's biggest population of the one-horned rhinos - about 2,400 at last count. Their horns are reportedly smuggled for millions of dollars.
Six rhinos have been killed by poachers this year. A veterinary surgeon who has conducted post mortems on rhinos killed by poachers for many years told NDTV earlier this week, "We have noticed that a lot of times, when the horn is sawed off, the skull is also fractured. This means the rhino's final hours are spent in such excruciating pain that we can perhaps not even begin to comprehend."
In the last few years, the Assam government has spoken about equipping a special force to protect Kaziranga's rhinos with latest weapons to tackle poachers. There have also been talks of drone surveillance at the national park.