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Assam to have CBI probe against rhino poaching
Finally with intense public pressure and demands from various quarters including appeal from several NGOs and the All Assam Students Union (AASU), the state administration has finally asked the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI to probe into the rhino poaching.
The influential organisations like All Assam Students Union, Nature's Beckon, Friends of Assam and Seven Sisters, Journalists Forum, Assam with many others had been raising voices for a CBI probe into the slaughtering of endangered rhinos in various national parks of Assam for quite a long time.
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In the wake of continuous poaching of rhinos in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park and the Rajiv Gandhi wildlife sanctuary in Orang, the government has decided to carry out a CBI probe on the illegal killings of at least 27 rhinos since January 2007.
Reportedly the government had earlier transferred the Kaziranga Divisional Forest Officer and formed a committee to find out the reasons behind the spurt in rhino poaching in three of the rhino habitat regions: Kaziranga, Orang and Pabitora game sanctuary. The committee is due to submit a report for effective measures to combat poaching.
The continued poaching of most endangered one-horned rhino has been a major public concern drawing a nexus between illegal poachers and Forest Department authorities in those sanctuaries.
Blaming the administration for not doing enough to combat illegal rhino killings, AASU, the state’s largest student organisation, has launched a campaign to create awareness against rhino poaching.
Earlier on April 28, two rhinos including a calf were killed by organised poacher gangs; unremitting poaching has so far jeopardised conservation effort of this endangered wildlife.
As per the last government report, the rhino population in Assam is a little over 2000 out of which Kaziranga inhabits about 1855, Orang 68 and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary 81; Assam alone abodes two-third of the world's estimated rhino population.
However, due to government negligence and growing network of organised poachers, the number has been decreased ever since compared to the last decade. In 2007, 18 rhinos were slaughtered in Kaziranga National Park alone.
According to a report during a period of 15 years from 1980 to 1995, about 1,509 rhinos died in Assam forest land which for obvious should cross few thousands mark adding the years till date but the forest department had only 1,498 horns in their custody which is awfully low. The missing rhino horns no doubt indicate some kind of nexus between forest department and rhino horn traders.
Between 1980 and 1997, some 550 rhinos were killed by organised poachers in Kaziranga - the highest being 48 in 1992. However, during 1998-2006, 47 were killed by illegal means taking an average over 10 rhinos in a year.
Earlier in February, a Citizens' meet, organised by Journalists' Forum, Assam supporting the demand for a CBI inquiry into the killings of rhinos in the state had urged Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi 'to break his silence on the issue and let the people know his government's stand and the steps he has taken, if any, to stop the menace'.
Govt report on rhino population.
Fresh rhino poaching in Kaziranga.
Assam to have CBI probe against rhino poaching.
9000-year-old rhino bones excavated in Russia.
US-based Non-Resident Indian adopts a rhino at a zoo in Assam.