By Syed Zarir Hussain, IANS
Kaziranga (Assam) : Wildlife authorities in Assam Wednesday announced a massive anti-poaching drive at the famed Kaziranga National Park after a spurt in incidents of slaughtering of one-horned rhinos by organised gangs.
“As new measures, we have decided to immediately deploy 100 armed home guards in the park, besides providing 200 additional .303 rifles to forest rangers to combat rhino poaching,” Assam Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain told IANS.
The new measures come in the wake of an increase in poaching of rhinos at the 430 sq km park, about 200 km from Assam’s main city of Guwahati.
Four rhinos have been killed for their horns this year at Kaziranga, including an adult male which was gunned down and whose horn was extracted by poachers Tuesday.
“We have also decided to set up 12 additional forest camps inside the sanctuary in vulnerable areas to thwart possible rhino poaching incidents,” the minister said.
The decision follows a high-level meeting the minister had with park rangers and wardens at the park Wednesday.
Last year, 20 rhinos were killed inside the park, the first time in a decade that the number of rhinos killed in a year touched the double-digit figure. 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.
“From now on, all forest guards manning the park would be provided free rations and the existing camps renovated as a step towards motivating the frontline staff,” Hussain said.
The Assam government had Tuesday sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the recent spurt in incidents of rhino poaching. “We want a CBI probe to investigate the sudden increase in rhino poaching incidents at Kaziranga,” the minister said.
“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, besides being 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 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 (approx $38,000) per kg in the international market after the horns are smuggled to China or sold in other clandestine Asian markets.