Kaziranga (Assam): Two rhinos, a mother and a calf, were ruthlessly killed this week in Kaziranga National Park. The mother was alive when its horn was removed and struggled for about 36 hours before succumbing to its wounds on Monday.

This is the second incident of rhino poaching recorded this year in Kaziranga, bringing the toll to three.

The incident took place around midnight on December 19, about a kilometre away from the park’s eastern boundary, near the bungalow of the Manager of Methoni Tea Estate, Bokakhat sub-division. Early morning on Sunday, the mother was seen next to the carcass of her calf. Forest officials recovered live as well as used .315 and 303 rifle cartridges from the site.

Dr Tikendrajit Hazarika, Forest Veterinary Officer, Kaziranga national Park performed Post Mortem on the calf, while Dr Anjan Talukdar, Veterinarian at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) and Dr Phulmoni Gogoi, Assistant Veterinary Surgeon attended to the bleeding mother and administered preliminary treatment.

“When we reached the site, the mother was sitting next to its calf. On seeing us, she stood up slowly and struggled to walk away from us falling several times due to exertion, while the calf lay dead with three bullets on its forehead. It was painful seeing the dehorned mother sitting next to her dead calf” said Dr Talukdar.

A team of experts from the College of Veterinary Science and Assam State Zoo of Guwahati rushed to Kaziranga with tranquilisers on Sunday. The next day however the rhino died shortly after being tranquilised, due to stress and excessive internal bleeding.

Uttam Saikia, Honorary Wildlife Warden of the national park said, “Three bullets were recovered from the forehead of the calf, which was about three and half years old. The mother had two bullet injuries on its neck and could have been unconscious when the poachers cut the horn.”

Three suspects, former tea garden workers, were arrested from a nearby village. Saikia said “The Bokakhat Police recovered a blood stained axe from them. The blood sample has been sent to the Forensic Lab of Guwahati for testing.”

Greater one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) poaching showed a drastic increase in 2007 when about 20 were killed in Kaziranga National Park, which holds the world’s largest population of this species. Official records show 716 rhinos deaths in the national park during the last decade of which 66 or more than nine percent were lost to poaching.