After a brief lull, the poachers have come into action again in Assam — this time in the Manas National Park.
The forest officials have recovered the carcass of a rhino calf from Katajhar area inside the park on Tuesday. The horn of the rhino was missing along with its nail and tail — which clearly indicated it to be a case of poaching.Officials said that the carcass of the male rhino was recovered during a routine patrolling. Preliminary investigation showed that it was killed using bullet and then chopped off the horn.
The animal was killed a few days back, officials said.“An inquiry had already been ordered and strict action will be taken against anyone found to be negligent on duty, which might have led to the death of the animal,” said Principal Assam’s Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) S Chand.Chand said that the matter had already been taken seriously by the department.
This is the third rhino killed in the Manas National Park this year and the fifth one since 2011, when the park regained its Unesco World Heritage Site status.The park was initially accorded the World Heritage Site status by the Unesco in 1985 due to its successful conservation of rhino and other wildlife. However, the international body declared Manas as World Heritage Site in Danger in 1992-after the rhino population of the park was almost wiped out due to Bodo insurgency.
It is only on June 2011 that the park regained its World Heritage Site status by the Unesco.Since 2008, the forest department had translocated a total of 22 one-horned rhinos to the Manas National Park from Kaziranga National Park and Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary as part of the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 programme (IRV - 2020).
The IRV-2020 is a joint programme of Assam forest department, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) and International Rhino Foundation (IRF) for translocation of the rhinos to Manas National Park in Assam aiming at attaining a population of 3,000 wild rhinos in seven protected areas of Assam by the year 2020.