The poachers have killed yet another one-horned rhino at the Rajiv Gandhi National Park at Orang in Darrang district of Assam. A forest guard was also killed while trying to fight the poachers. Park officials said that the poachers also chopped-off the horn of the female rhino and decamped.
This is the 26th rhino that was killed by the poachers in Assam in 2014. “A group of poachers entered the park last night. We have intensified the operation after receiving the information to track the poachers. However, the poachers killed a female rhino. The forest guards, however, challenged the poachers and in the ensuing encounter one of our guards was killed around 3 am today," a park official said.
He said that the slain guard was a member of the Assam Home Guards and had been working in the park for the last several years. On December 10, the forest guards discovered a carcass of a rhino in the park and it was suspected to have been poached as the horn was missing from the carcass. It may be mentioned here that the highest number of poaching cases took place in Assam in 2013, when the poachers killed 41 rhinos including 27 in Kaziranga, five in Manas National Park, three in Orang National Park, two in Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary and four in other areas. Assam Forest and Environment Minister Rockybul Hussain had recently informed the State Assembly that a total of 193 one-horned rhinos have been killed by the poachers in Assam since 2001.