Assam: With recorded rhino kills by poachers averaging at two per month in 2008, the number of deaths within Kaziranga National Park alone, have risen to 26 since 2007. 

After a period of inactivity since the first week of February, the poachers struck again last month killing four rhinos, two each in Kaziranga National Park and Orang National Park within a matter of few days, prompting protests from different sections of the society.

The forest department has called in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the killings of the rhinos. According to SN Buragohain, Director, Kaziranga National Park, “two committees of experts have also been established to separately assess the difficulties faced during park protection, reactions of the local people and to suggest better and more effective ways of protecting the species”.

“The security has been increased, but there are always loopholes and it is very difficult to provide complete protection,” the Director said. “This is a sensitive issue and some people try and get political mileage out of this. Shouting slogans, spreading rumour and negativities are not going to benefit anyone; it will instead harm the morale of the forest department staff. Alternatively, they should come forward and volunteer for conservation,” he added.

Two persons from a nearby village have been arrested by the police in connection to the killings in Kaziranga.

Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site in Assam, holds the world’s largest greater one-horned rhinoceros population. The latest population count carried out in 2006 reported the presence of 1855 rhinos in Kaziranga National Park, an increase of over 300 from the last, done in 1999. However, the park has been struggling to counter the poaching problem which showed a steep rise from five cases in 2006 to 20 in 2007. Increase in the price of the horn and involvement of organised gangs with better weapons are believed to be the reasons for this rise.

Ashok Kumar, vice chairman of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) said, “The continued killings of rhinos in Assam is of grave concern and needs to be controlled. Although Kaziranga is relatively better placed in this regard because of its huge population of rhinos, it is never too early to prevent a disaster. It is clear from these instances that poachers are quite active in these areas and this must be stopped.”

Killing four rhinos in Kaziranga by the first week of February, the poachers perhaps used the brief lull as a strategy to catch the forest department off-guard.

Incidentally, it was during this lull that a rhino, orphaned by poachers and hand-raised in the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), was relocated from Kaziranga to Manas National Park by the Assam forest department, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and its partner International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). The relocation was a part of the reintroduction attempt by the three organisations that began in 2006 and had already realised the transfer of three older orphan rhinos from the CWRC.