By IANS
Guwahati : With one more rhino slaughtered for its horn Tuesday, the Assam government has sought a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the recent spurt in poaching incidents at the famed Kaziranga National Park.
The decision for the CBI probe comes in the wake of another giant pachyderm found brutally killed Tuesday, taking the toll to four this year.
“We want a CBI to investigate the sudden increase in rhino poaching incidents at Kaziranga,” Assam Forest and Environment Minister Rockybul Hussain told journalists.
A full grown male rhino was killed at the 430 sq km park early Tuesday and its horn extracted and taken away by poachers.
“Poachers shot dead the rhino using sophisticated weapons. There could well be a big conspiracy behind the recent poaching of rhinos. We are bent on stopping this,” the minister said.
A female rhino at the park had a gory end late last month after poachers brutally hacked off its horn. The rhino was left bleeding and died three days later despite efforts by veterinarians to save it. The poachers had killed its three-year-old calf and removed its tiny horn using an axe.
Last year, 20 rhinos were killed inside the park. That was the first time in a decade that the number of rhinos killed in a year touched the double-digit figure.
According to latest figures, some 1,855 of the world’s estimated 2,700 such herbivorous beasts lumber around in 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 several poachers and arrested a number of them in the past few months,” park warden S.N. Buragohain, said.
Organised poachers kill rhinos for their horns, which many believe contain aphrodisiac qualities. The horns are also used as medicines for curing fever, stomach ailments and other diseases in parts of South Asia.
Rhino horn is also much fancied by buyers from the Middle East who turn them into handles of ornamental daggers, while elephant 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 ($38,000) per kg in the international market after the horns are smuggled to China or sold in other clandestine Asian markets.