The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will take up the investigation regarding the cases of poaching of one-horned rhinos in Assam soon. Assam Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain said this while interacting with the mediapersons here on Sunday.
“We have received a letter on Saturday from the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions in this regard,” said Hussain while adding that they were still awaiting the details.
The State Government had written to the Centre last year urging for a probe into the rhino poaching by the Central agency, particularly after the State had recorded a sudden spate in poaching of one-horned rhinos.
The move is significant, particularly due to the fact that a total of 16 one-horned rhinos have been killed in the State by poachers since January this year.
The Assam Forest Minister had also informed the recently concluded Budget Session of the State Assembly that a total of 126 one-horned rhinos have been killed by poachers in Assam in last 10 years.
Meanwhile, the Forest Minister further said that the Kaziranga National Park would witness a test flight of the much anticipated unmanned aircraft from Monday.
The four-day-long exercise will be supervised by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientist Dr K Ramesh, said Hussain while adding that the test run will be conducted with a ‘solar empowered hobby plane’ to understand all measures that will be required for implementation of the unmanned aircraft for better surveillance of the national park.
The Assam Government had urged the Central Government for allowing use of unmanned aircraft for better surveillance of the park since last year. Although the proposal was cleared by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests recently, it is yet to receive an approval from the Ministry of Defence.