Kaziranga’s Cry

The Assam government unable to arrest the increasing rhino poaching in the Kaziranga and other wild habitats in the state has finally ordered for a high-level probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeing conspiracy between the wildlife caretakers and organised poachers.

Kaziranga National Park in the north-eastern state of Assam spreads in the heart of Assam with an area of 430 sq km known for its world's largest population of one-horned rhinoceroses apart from other mammals.

As per latest figures, Kaziranga shelters around 1,855 of the world's estimated 2,700 one-horned rhinos in the wilds of Kaziranga. However, considering the past, this figure has seen a firm downfall with constant slaughtering of the giant mammal.

Poachers who kill rhinos inside the park kill just because of the high demands of the rhino horn, which many believe contain aphrodisiac qualities, besides being used as medicines for curing fever, stomach ailments and other diseases in parts of South and East Asia.

Since January 2007, the park has witnessed the loss of as many as 26 rhinos to poachers and the latest one in the list is in the month of April, 2008 when two more rhinos were killed inside the forest.

For more information do read the news stories:

• Assam Government bows down to Public Outrages - Sun, 4 May 2008
• Assam to have CBI probe against rhino poaching - Sat, 3 May 2008
• Fresh rhino poaching in Kaziranga - Tue, 29 Apr 2008
• Govt report on rhino population - Fri, 28 Mar 2008
• Assam: Where government ignores people's uproar - Mon, 3 Mar 2008
• Escalating public outcry over rhino poaching - Tue, 19 Feb 2008
• Rhino poaching soars high in Kaziranga National Park - Wed, 6 Feb 2008