Kaziranga (Assam), Sep 17 (IANS) An endangered one-horned rhino was shot dead by poacher gangs after the beast fled a flooded wildlife sanctuary in Assam, taking the toll of the giant pachyderms slaughtered so far this year to 13, officials said Monday.
The latest killing was reported over the weekend from near the Kaziranga National Park, 220 km east of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.
“The female rhino and its calf were among many animals that have fled the sanctuary to take shelter in highlands and some strayed away to nearby human settlement areas making them vulnerable to poachers,” Assam’s chief wildlife warden M.C. Malakar told IANS.
The poachers, however, failed to take away the horn after killing the rhino with silencer-fitted carbines. “Our guards on duty reached the spot where the rhino was killed very quickly forcing the poachers to retreat without being able to extract the horn,” Kaziranga park warden S.N. Buragohain said.
Last month, poachers killed two rhinos that strayed out the sanctuary due to high floods.
Poachers have been able to take advantage of the park being hit by ravaging floods and an acute staff shortage, pushing the beasts to fall prey to poachers unchallenged.
Floodwaters have submerged the entire 430 sq km park killing at least 25 animals, including three rhinos, deer and wild boars, in separate incidents of drowning or speeding trucks mowing down the beasts trying to cross over a highway for taking shelter in an adjoining hill.
About 26 animals, including deer and elephant calves, were rescued by wildlife rangers from the flooded park and now sheltered in an animal care home close to the park.
This is the first time in a decade that the number of rhinos killed in a year has touched the double digit. As per latest figures, some 1,855 of the worlds estimated 2,700 such herbivorous beasts lumber around the wilds of Kaziranga -their numbers ironically making the giant mammals a favourite target for poaching.
“We are trying our best to check poaching and have killed three poachers and arrested six others so far this year,” the warden said.
Organised poachers kill rhinos for their horns, which many believe contain aphrodisiac qualities, besides being used as medicines for curing fever, stomach ailments and other diseases in parts of South Asia.
Rhino horn is also fancied by buyers from the Middle East who turn them into handles of ornamental daggers, while elephant ivory tusks are primarily used for making ornaments and decorative items.
Profits in the illegal rhino horn trade are staggering — rhino horn sells for up to Rs.1.5 million per kg in the international market after the horns are smuggled to China or sold in other clandestine Asian markets.
The raging floods in Assam displaced an estimated 11.28 million people in 21 of Assam’s 27 districts although the situation has shown some signs of improvement over the weekend, a government statement said.
The floods that began July have so far killed 87 people in Assam.
“The flood situation is slowly improving, but millions of people are still lodged in makeshift shelters with their homes either washed away or under water,” Bhumidhar Barman, Assam relief and rehabilitation minister, told IANS.