Kaziranga guard's close shave from charging rhino

A forest guard, who was assisting in the ongoing census of one-horned rhinos in Assam's Kaziranga National Park, was injured on Thursday when he fell off an elephant which was charged at by an irate rhino.

Park authorities said the guard, Indra Rajput, fell off the elephant as a rhino charged at the census team which went very near to the animal during the census operation.

"The rest of the team members rescued him immediately before the charging rhino could do any harm," an official said.

The guard's hand was fractured in the incident at Dhekiatoli area under Kohora forest range of the park.

On Wednesday, a mahout, who accompanied the census team, had also fallen down and was injured.

The census report is expected by Saturday, the officials said.

The census of one-horned rhinos in all national parks and other rhino habitats is a regular exercise carried out every three years.

The last census was carried out in Kaziranga in 2012, which spotted 2,290 rhinos.

The Assam government had carried out a special census in Kaziranga in 2013 as rampant poaching was taking place at the time. The census ascertained the presence of 2,329 rhinos.

In 2009, there were 2,048 rhinos in the park.

"It is a huge exercise, involving more than 200 people. Besides park officials, people from NGOs, media and forest department officials from other parks, have also been called in to assist," said Kaziranga divisional forest officer S.K. Seal Sarma.

--Indo-Asian news Service

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