Rhino poacher killed in fierce gun battle with forest guards in Assam's Kaziranga National Park

Guwahati: In a major breakthrough, the forest guards on Saturday shot dead a rhino poacher after a fierce gun battle in Kaziranga National Park in Assam.

The park authorities said that the encounter took place inside the Agoratoli Range of the national park.

The park authorities said that the gun battle broke out when a group of poachers entered the Agoratoli forest range at around 3 am to kill rhinos and were intercepted by the forest guards near the Erasuti forest camp.

The Director of Kaziranga National Park, Sonali Ghosh told reporters that after getting a tip off about the movement of poachers a team of forest guards was alerted and accordingly a cordon was laid down to nab the poachers.

Informing that poachers who were armed opened fire on forest guards ensuing a gun battle, she said that 3-4 poachers entered the National Park, while one of them was killed in the gun fight, but few of them managed to escape.

The Director of the park also informed that arms and ammunition like a .315 rifle which is specially used for rhino poaching have been recovered.

Informing that they are still carrying out search operations to nab the other poachers, she said that they are leaving no stone unturned to check this menace in Kaziranga National Park.

Earlier on January 22 this year, one case of rhino poaching in Kaziranga National Park was reported. It is significant that Assam achieved the record of zero rhino poaching in 2022, first time since 1977. In 2023 one case of rhino poaching was registered in March. There are about 2,613 rhinos in the Park.