Guwahati: The Crime Investigation Range of Assam’s Forest department has apprehended a group of poachers in the Biswanath district.
The poachers intended to murder a one-horned rhinoceros in Kaziranga National Park.
As per reports, a joint team of police and the Crime Investigation Range of the Forest department conducted an operation in the Behali area of the Biswanath district on Monday.
During the operation, four poachers were captured, among them one was an ex-member of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB).
The poachers were identified as Ajit Das, Padum Hazarika alias Dhandu, Dhanidev Saikia and Dipankar Boro.
Reportedly, the officer of crime investigation range in Biswanath district, Jatindra Mohan Das said that the poachers tried to kill a rhino.
“We received information that a gang led by a person Ajit Das had been planning to kill a rhino in Kaziranga National Park and based on that input we have launched an operation and arrested the gang. Ajit Das is hailing from Rangsali village under Behali police station. Other members of the gang have been identified as Padum Hazarika alias Dhandu, Dhanidev Saikia and Dipankar Boro. The entire family of Dhanidev was involved in poaching activities. Dipankar Boro is an ex-NDFB cadre,” Jatindra Mohan Das said.
“We learned that a group of people, including Ajit Das, had been planning to murder a rhino in Kaziranga National Park. Based on this intelligence, we initiated an operation and apprehended the group. Ajit Das is a native of the Behali police station’s Rangsali hamlet. Padum Hazarika alias Dhandu, Dhanidev Saikia, and Dipankar Boro have also been named as gang members. Dhanidev’s entire family took part in poaching activities. A former member of the NDFB cadre, “stated Jatindra Mohan Das.
Moreover, the park has two-thirds of the species’ global population and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Reports further stated, in every three years the state forest department conducts a census programme.
The population of rhinos in Kaziranga National Park is 2,413 according to a census done in March 2018 by the Forest Department of the Government of Assam and a few reputable wildlife NGOs.
Around 2,500 rhino horns the largest stockpile of its kind in the world, were burned and destroyed in September of last year in Bokakhat of Assam, to commemorate World Rhino Day and dispel the beliefs that have encouraged the hunting of the endangered pachyderms.