The Eden of animals in Assam has witnessed the ugliest manifestation of human brutality over the last weekend.
A three-and-a-half month old rhino calf of the famed Kaziranga National Park (KNP) has been killed for her yet-to-grow horn. The ruthless poachers shot the calf’s mother and gouged out her horn even before she died. The critically wounded mother rhino  writhed in pain for nearly 36 hours before breathing her last on Monday.

Although the KNP witnessed a spurt in poaching in the recent months, the latest incident was the most horrific and shocked the forest officials and wildlife activists.

Aranyak, a group of conservationists sought intervention from Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to save the KNP’s endangered rhinos from the bullets of the poachers. The KNP’s director S N Buragohain said the poachers targeted the mother-daughter duo when they strayed out of the core area of the sanctuary and was roaming near the adjoining Methoni Tea Estate.

The sanctuary’s authorities lodged a complaint at the local police station. The cops arrested three youths from a nearby village on Monday. “We have been told that the police personnel did not find the horns or the guns with the youths, although they had bloodstains on their shirts,” said Mr Buragohain.

The forest guards spotted the mother-rhino early on Sunday. “It was trying to trudge along, but fell over after a few steps,” said the Divisional Forest Officer, Bankim Sharma. “The calf was lying dead just a few feet away.”
The mother had a large bleeding gash between its eyes, where it had its horn. The vets administered sedatives but were in vain.

“This is the most gruesome incident of poaching in the KNP. The poachers set a new standard of brutality for themselves by killing the calf. They didn’t even wait for the mother to die and sawed off the horn,” said Bibhab Talukdar of Aranyak.

The rhinos are killed for their horns, which are believed to have aphrodisiac properties and fetch huge money in the illegal markets of some South East Asian countries.