Rhino Poached, Horn Hacked off in Assam’s Kaziranga, AK-47 Bullets Found

Amid a nationwide lockdown over the COVID-19 outbreak, a tragedy struck Assam’s Kaziranga National Park. An adult male Indian rhinoceros (also called greater one-horned rhino) was gunned down and its horn was hacked off.

Park authorities found eight empty cartridges from an AK-47 assault rifle at the scene, suggesting the poachers were well-armed.

This is the first report of rhino poaching from Kaziranga, which is already on high alert over reports of African swine fever (an infectious viral disease that affects domestic and wild pigs) in over a year.

The carcass was found in the park’s Agartoli Range, which is located in the eastern side of Kaziranga and is famous for both rhinoceros and elephants.

Last year the Assam government raised, trained and deployed a special Rhino Protection Force, consisting of 82 armed personnel tasked with protecting rhinos from poachers.

Since then, there had been no reports of rhinos being poached; the last such incident was reported on April 1, 2019.