Assam: Biswanath police nabs suspected rhino poacher in Sootea

The Kaziranga National park authorities in collaboration with Biswanath police in the night hours of December 28 managed to arrest the accused involved in killing of a rhino in early 2022 in Sootea in Tezpur.

Following a tip-off the park authorities along with the police launched a mission to nab the culprit.

The culprit who has been identified as Saiful Islam (28) was arrested from sootea in Tezpur. Islam was said to be hiding in Kerala.

KNP director Jatindranath Sarma who led the mission said that a body of rhino was recovered from Shilekhunda at Kohora range on January 20.

“The poachers took away the horn killing the rhino,” Sarma said.

After the incident forest officials along with police managed to nab 7 persons associated with the poaching. Islam was also associated with the poaching but police couldn’t nab Islam at that time.

However, recently secret sources revealed Islam’s change of location and when he arrived at Sootea police managed to nab him.

Park authorities believe that Islam was associated with many rhino poaching incidents in the past.

In the meantime authorities have started an investigation into the matter after filling a case upon Islam. 

According to figures over the years rhino poaching has come down drastically. In a major success for the Anti Poaching Task Force of KNP only one rhino poaching incident came to light in 2021.

Situation was grim in 2013-14 when 54 rhinos were poached in the period.

According to reports, in 2018, seven rhino poaching incidents were reported. In 2019 three cases were reported and just two in 2020.

From 75 in 1905 to 3,600 in 2020, India's rhino population has increased by 35 times in 115 years.

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#Assam: Another incident of wild animals trespassing human territory surfaced on December 30.

Two one-horned rhinos were found to be freely roaming around in the eastern region of the Jorhat district. #wildlife #assam #jorhat #humananimalconflict pic.twitter.com/rsp27LWnh6

— India Today NE (@IndiaTodayNE) December 30, 2022