[Assam] Poached & pained, rhino continues to bleed

[Pradip Kumar Datta]

  Poached & pained, rhino continues to bleed
  
By A Staff Reporter Assam Tribune
  
 GUWAHATI, Jan 20 — In a gruesome incident, poachers brutally hacked off the horn of a wounded rhino they had shot and also killed her calf very close to Kaziranga National Park last night. The baby rhino’s tiny horn was found missing. The bleeding adult rhino is now in a critical condition.

The event took place less than a kilometre away from the park boundaries inside the Methoni tea estate, said park director SN Burhagohain. Personnel at the tea estate had heard gunshots around 11.30 pm. 

Poachers could take advantage of the fact that the crime spot was among unguarded areas close to Kaziranga. The shots were fired close to a field after the rhino and her calf had strayed away from the park. “We do not have any camps near the area where the incident occurred,” said Burhagohain.

Anjan Talukdar of the conservation group Aaranyak, who is among those attending to the stricken rhino, told The Assam Tribune over phone that the female rhino with multiple injuries is enduring a very painful time. A veterinary team from Guwahati is being rushed to help save the rhino, but chance of her surviving is small. 

The shooting of the rhinos has once again highlighted crucial lapses in managing the national park, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Last year around 20 rhinos were slaughtered in and around the park, a high figure compared to previous years. Earlier this year too, a rhino was killed although poachers could not remove its horn. 

Senior officials in the park acknowledge that Kaziranga is facing one of its most difficult phases in recent history. Funds made available by the Union Government is on a sharp slide, and the political will of the State Government to augment protection measures is also described as near absent.

Even though the Forest Department is aware of a severe shortage in field level staff, so far there has been no substantial increase. Many of the existing staff are over the age of 40 and some are ailing, making them unfit for strenuous patrolling inside difficult terrain.

The other worry for the park authorities is that new elements either members of extremist outfits or criminals supported by them could be involved in poaching 

attempts. “Quite a few incidents of poaching seem to suggest that those involved differ from professional poachers,” said a senior forest official. 

Kaziranga’s strategic position has lured quite a few extremist outfits to carry out rhino poaching. Apart from extremists active in Karbi Anglong, those from Manipur and Nagaland have reportedly been involved in killing rhinos because of the marked demand for rhino horns. 

Kaziranga according to 2006 estimation has 1,855 one horned rhino inside an area that is close to 900 sq kilometres, making it the richest natural refuge of the species.


       
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