Wildlife crisis: 3 animals killed in one week

Assam: It's been a rather bad wildlife week in the Northeast region. Three of the big five endangered species were brutally killed.

A full grown Royal Bengal Tiger was killed in a village in Arunachal Pradesh while the villagers consumed the meat, the skin was allegedly sold off to a businessman from the plains.

In neighbouring Assam too poachers have been active.

A rhinoceros in Rajiv Gandhi National Park, Orang fell to his death struggling for more than 48 hours after his horn was gouged out by poachers. In 2008 Kaziranga witnessed a similar incident of a rhino who bled to death after his horn was hacked away.

Two days later another rhinoceros was found dead in Kaziranga National Park. On the same day an elephant carcass was discovered by villagers of Murpholuni forest beat in Kaziranga-Karbianglong elephant reserve.

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Assam's forest department has now decided to combat poaching by providing commando training for its wildlife staff.

"Tiger poaching is primarily controlled from China and that is an international network and we are taking all possible efforts to combat different type of poaching," said V K Vishnoi, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Assam.

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In the last one year in Assam twenty four rhinos were poached for their horns. Officials say they cannot be held responsible for animals straying out of the National Park and coming under attack.

More than 15 tigers were found dead in Assam's forests but the forest department claimed that tiger deaths were due to infighting and not poaching. In elephant census the number of tuskers have significantly gone down but the forest records don't reflect any tusker deaths.
So, are the authorities in denial or simply not bothered?