Manas National Park loses one-horned rhino to poacher

Even though Assam celebrated 2022 as a zero-rhinoceros-poaching year that drew attention from the international media and global celebrities, the running year has reported two incidents relating to the poaching of precious one-horned rhinos in Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (NPTR) and Manas NPTR during the first half.

- AVA THAKURIA

The most recent one was discovered in the Manas forest reserve in western Assam, northeast India, when forest workers discovered the remains of a single-horned rhinoceros. The rhino was most likely poached in May for its valuable horn, but the authorities were unaware of it until the final week of June.

Earlier, Kaziranga forest staff recovered the carcass of a rhino inside the world-famous forest reserve in the last week of March. Here too, the rhino was understood to have been poached days ago, as the staff recovered its decomposed body with the horn missing. Otherwise, the brutal laws against the poachers, the strengthening of ground staff inside the protected forest areas, and increasing public awareness in the fringe localities of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries across Assam positively impacted the mission to save the rhinos.

Needless to mention, the people of the state, irrespective of their political, ethnic, or religious affiliations, maintain a strong affection for the giant animal.