The poachers have killed a rhino calf in western Assam’s Manas National Park and managed to decamp with its horn, park officials said on Friday.
This is the first rhino to be poached in the Manas national park since January this year, the officials said.
“The guards have recovered the carcass of a male rhino calf at Bhuyapara forest range of the park during routine patrolling on Friday morning. It was a male calf, about two-and-half years old,” a senior park official said adding that an operation had been launched to track the poachers.
“This is very unfortunate. There had been no poaching in Manas during last year,” he said.
The poachers had killed about four one-horned rhinos in Manas in 2013.
The poachers have already killed eight one-horned rhinos so far in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park this year.
It may be mentioned here that the Manas National Park is an UNESCO Natural World Heritage site, a Project Tiger reserve, an elephant reserve and a biosphere reserve in Assam. located in the Himalayan foothills, it is contiguous with the Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan.
The UNESCO declared Manas as a World Heritage Site in Danger due to heavy poaching and terrorist activities in the park during 1990s. In 2008, the UNESCO removed the park from the list of World Heritage in Danger and was commended for its efforts in preservation.
Although the park had a substantial number of one-horned rhino population, the species got wiped out completely during the poaching and terrorist activities between 1988 to 2001. However, the Assam Government translocated a few one-horned rhinos to the park in 2010-11 and now there are about 31 one-horned rhinos in the park.