Poachers have struck again in Kaziranga National Park (KNP) in Assam, killing yet another one-horned rhino.
Forest officials on Thursday said that the number of rhinos slain by poachers this year had gone up to 17, with the recovery of the carcass of yet another endangered pachyderm in the famed wildlife sanctuary.
“There were four bullet marks on the carcass of the female rhino. The poachers took away its horn,” said the KNP’s director S N Buragohain.
The forest guards found the carcass over 12 hours after they heard gunshots in the park’s Bagori Range. The Divisional Forest Officer Bankim Sharma said that the poachers had used sophisticated weapons to kill the rhino.
The KNP is now home to around 2000 one-horned rhinos, over 65 per cent of the endangered pachyderm’s global population.
But the recent spurt in poaching sullied the fame of the KNP, which scripted one of the greatest success stories in wildlife conservation by bringing back the one-horned rhinos from the brink of extinction.
The number of rhinos killed by poachers in the KNP was remarkably low since 1998. But the scene has changed of late.
While 13 rhinos have fallen prey to poachers’ bullets inside the KNP, four others were killed around the park.
The rising population of rhinos has made the poachers’ job easier, while the KNP authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to keep vigil across the 430 sq km wildlife sanctuary with inadequate manpower.
There has not been any fresh recruitment in the last 10 years and altogether 111 posts of frontline staff are lying vacant.
“Inadequate patrolling is the only reason for the recent spurt in poaching,” said Bibhab Talukdar of Aranyak, a group of wildlife activists, which wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting his intervention to save the rhinos from poachers. The state government has a few months back sent 50 personnel to the KNP and ordered the police chiefs of the adjoining districts to step up surveillance around the park.
The rhinos are killed for their horns, which are believed to have aphrodisiac properties and are in great demand in China and many other countries of South Asia. A kilogram of rhino horn can fetch up to US$ 10000 in international markets.
