Kaziranga widens net for poachers
|
|
The Times of India
|
|
Guwahati
|
10 Jul 2012
|
|
Forest Officials have set up additional anti-poaching camps and deployed more guards to protect rhinos that have left the flooded Kaziranga National Park, The 430 sq km world heritage site is home to more than half 2,290 of the world`s one horned rhinos.
Divisional forest officer (Kaziranga) D.D. Gogoi said around 100 rhinos may have escaped to the hill district of Karbi Anglong looking for shelter in the elevated forest land. "We `ve set up 10 additional anti-poaching camps to protect the rhinos that have moved to the fringes of Kaziranga and neighboring Karbi Anglong Besides, we have brought in about 100 additional guards from other forest divisions to stop possible poaching of the fleeing animals."
Gogoi added that a majority of the rhinos had returned to their habitats with the fall in the water level.
Taking advantage of the floods, poachers had killed two rhinos last week. Fourteen of them, mostly calves and old and sick ones, died because of the floods.
Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, situated 50 km from here, lost one rhino to poachers.
"Poachers become active during the floods. They target rhinos that stray into fringe areas for shelter. We have intensified patrolling in such areas. Our intelligence wing is monitoring the movement of poachers," a Kaziranga park official said.
State forest minister Rockybul Hussain has asked park officials to remain alert and catch those who killed rhinos that were trying to escape floods last week.
Kaziranga has lost 573 animals, including 486 hog deer, during the floods. The famed park has about 25,000 hog deer.
Central team to visit
A central team will arrive in Guwahati on Tuesday to assess the devastation caused by the floods in the state. At the moment, there are 395 relief camps where over 1.5 lakh people have taken shelter.
Officials said the floods have damaged over 2.5 lakh hectares of paddy fields About 100 teams of health officials have fanned out to prevent a possible outbreak of water-borne diseases. Over 120 people have died since the floods hit the state three weeks ago.
|