Poachers sedate rhino, cut horn

In the first incident of its kind, poachers removed the horn from a male rhino after tranquilising it, instead of normal practice of killing the animal, in central Assam’s Orang National Park.

The park authorities confirmed the incident on Friday while clarifying that the incident came to light on Monday when personnel deployed in the park found the dehorned sub-adult male rhino with a bleeding nose aged around 8-10 years, during routine patrolling in Muwamari area.

This is the second case of Rhino poaching in Assam this year and the first instance of its kind at the Orang National Park since

2017.

The divisional forest officer Pradipta Baruah of Mangaldoi Wildlife Division told reporters, “There are very rare incidents when rhinos lose their horns during fights with other rhinos in the wild. But in order to ascertain the cause of losing horn, we called a team of experts including veterinary doctors from the state zoo in Guwahati who visited the park on May

10.”

After tranquilising the rhino, the team of experts found that the horn was cut with a sharp weapon by an expert hand, officials familiar with the matter said. No bullet injuries were found on the rhino. The team concluded that the animal was tranquilised by poachers and then its horn was removed.

Baruah said, “This is the first instance of poaching of a rhino horn using tranquiliser guns in Orang. Earlier, one-two such instances were recorded in Kaziranga National Park in the state. But this is the first time we have found that the horn has been removed in such a way that the animal continues to be alive and healthy.”

The wildlife officials said that the injured rhino has been administered medicine by veterinary doctors and there has been no maggot formation on the wound. “The rhino’s condition is stable now and it has been allowed to remain in the wild under doctors’ supervision,” officials said.

Admitting that poachers are resorting to new modus operandi, the wildlife authorities have taken note of the incident and alerted the forest guards and anti-poaching team across the state.

Orang is one of the few national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in Assam which has a population of one-horned rhino, an endangered species targeted by poachers for its horn.