Another rhino was killed by poachers at Kaziranga National Park in Assam on Saturday.
There was heavy exchange of fire between a group of five poachers and forest guards near Sundari Camp of the Park’s Burapahar range around 6 a.m, KNP sources said.
The guards then recovered the carcass of the bullet-riddled rhino with its horn intact, they said.
The poachers, however, fled away after the encounter.
This is the fourth rhino to have fallen victim to bullets of poachers this week.
On January 29, a rhino was killed and its horn sawed off near the Hatibandi Camp under Bagori range of the Park along Nagaon and Karbi Anglong districts.
The same day another rhino was killed and its horn removed by poachers near Borholla camp in the Burapahar range of the Park.
In the third incident on January 30 poachers killed a rhino when it was being escorted back by forest guards to KNP after it had strayed to Majuli the night before.
Keywords: rhino poaching, rhino deaths, Assam rhino deaths
The occurrence of incident four times in single week shows the audacity
of the poachers.Instead of staying low for a while,the poachers are
active and harming the Indian's prized animal.The exchange of fire
should be able to grab the attention of officials.
The rapidity and rise of the menace of poaching hints at a certain confidence in the impunity of such crimes. As much as the killings are detestable, the inability to contain and eliminate the peril of unnatural extinction of these fine creatures is distressing. Maybe it is time that this issue was raised at the highest levels of national governance so that effective measures can be immediately implemented in order to arrest this very disturbing trend and to preserve our national biological heritage.
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