25th one-horned rhino killed in Kaziranga

Poachers have killed another one-horned rhino, the 25th this year, at the Kaziranga National park in Assam and decamped with its horn, officials said Monday.

The carcass of the rhino was recovered from the Burhapahar range of the park Monday, officials said. The carcass bore bullet injuries.

"Its horn was chopped off by poachers using sharp weapons," officials said.

Additional forces have been brought in to boost security at the national park.

"We heard some gun shots from near the Burhapahar range Sunday evening. Our forces launched an operation immediately. However, the poachers managed to kill the rhino and take away its horn," they said.

Since January, 34 one-horned rhinos have been poached in various protected areas in Assam, including 25 in Kaziranga, four in Manas national park, two in Pabitora wildlife sanctuary and three in Rajiv Gandhi national park at Orang in Darrang district.

Earlier this month, three rhinos, including a mother and a calf, were killed in Orang in two separate incidents within one week. The Rajiv Gandhi national park used to be the only "zero poaching" protected area of the state till the killings.

The Assam government had taken up a slew of measures, including amending the Wildlife Forest Act, 1972 so that poachers can be awarded life sentences and forest personnel allowed to use sophisticated weapons to match the firepower of the poachers.

However, poachers have been killing the one-horned rhinos at will.

This rampant killing has threatened the ambitious Indian Rhino Vision 2020 project in Assam, which aims at increasing the total rhino population in the state to 3,000 by the year 2020.