After trailing missing tigers in the jungles of Sariska, the sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will now scour the swampy grassland of Assam’s Kaziranga National Park (KNP) to find how the sanctuary suddenly turned unsafe for its most famous inhabitants, the one-horned rhinos.

The State’s Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain said Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had accepted his proposal for a CBI inquiry into the poaching incidents. KNP’s success-story in saving the rhinos from extinction earned it global recognition. But its fame has been eclipsed with a spurt in poaching incidents over the last two years.

At least 21 rhinos fell prey to the poachers’ bullets in 2007, while six more have so far been killed this year. The latest took place last week when a mother rhino and its calf were killed.

Rhinos are killed for their horns, which are believed to have aphrodisiac properties and fetch huge sums in illegal markets.

KNP’s officials and guards earned accolade for keeping the number of rhinos being poached as low as four or five in late 1990s and early 2000s. The authorities blamed lack of manpower and firearms and other equipment for the spurt in poaching cases last year. Though the State Government deployed some home-guards to help the forest personnel, they could hardly make any difference. Conservationists suspect that an international racket of illegal wildlife traders might be responsible for the incidents.

“We welcome the State’s decision to rope in CBI. We hope they get to the bottom of it and find out if there is any nexus between poachers and forest officials,” said Soumyadeep Datta, who heads Nature’s Beckon — a group of wildlife activists.