RHINO KILLED BY POACHERS IN KAZIRANGA

Poachers killed an adult rhino and escaped with its horn from the Western Range of the Kaziranga National Park in Biswanath district. The incident happened at Polokata near Sitamari area, a sandbar island in the Brahmaputra. Poachers took its horn and fled the spot. Forest officials found five rounds of empty cartridges of .303 rifle from the spot. A joint team of forest and police personnel launched an operation to nab the poachers.

It may be mentioned that this is the second rhino poaching incident in Kaziranga this year. On January 14, a female rhino was killed at Daflang camp area of Bagori range, but the poachers could not take its horn.

Altogether 74 rhinos have been killed by poachers in Assam since 2015 and 316 poachers were arrested during 2015-17. As many as 21 rhinos were killed in 2015, 22 the next year and 9 in 2017.