GUWAHATI: A man in Assam has been arrested by the police for killing a one-horned rhinoceros with a spear.
The accused, Naren Saikia (47), is now in judicial custody. The adult female rhino, which strayed out of the Kaziranga National Park & Tiger Reserve, was attacked on November 24. The carcass was spotted on November 30.
Never before was a rhino killed in the state in such a manner. In a statement, the park described as bizarre the “hunting” of the animal with a spear.
“As per the sequence of events, on November 24 around 8.30 pm, the key accused Naren Saikia, a resident of Lokhorakhonia, threw a spear at the rhino that had ventured (out) in the area,” the statement said.
It added that based on intelligence inputs gathered by Divisional Forest Officer Arun Vignesh and his team, Saikia was arrested and sent to judicial custody on November 26.
While the accused was arrested, there was no trace of the rhino despite searches. Eventually, a combing operation carried out with a drone helped detect the carcass on Thursday at 2.30 pm near the park’s Teteliguri anti-poaching camp. The post-mortem was conducted on Friday.
The rhino was estimated to be aged 20-30 years and the cause of death was ascribed to an injury inflicted on the left side of stomach with a deep penetration of the weapon (spear) across the skin and ribs.
“Further samples have been collected for DNA analysis and for RhoDIS (Rhino DNA Index System) and shall be sent to Wildlife Institute of India. The horn was intact and recovered as per standard procedure by departmental staff for safe custody,” the statement said.
This is the second rhino to be killed in Kaziranga this year. The first incident took place on January 1.
According to the rhino census of 2022, Assam has 2,895 rhinos – 2,613 of them in Kaziranga, 125 in Orang National Park & Tiger Reserve, 107 in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and 50 in Manas National Park & Tiger Reserve.