Guwahati: A dead carcass of a rhinocores was found at the Kathpara camp under Western Range Bagori in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR) by authorities on Sunday.

The carcass was found at around 4:30 pm in Bormer beel and its horn was missing, the first such incident in the state after zero-poaching last year.

As per official, there was a cut mark in the nasal bone of the rhino and the horn was taken away by miscreants.

The official stated that the rhino was killed by a poacher about 6-7 days before. Its sex yet to be ascertained as the carcass was found floating in water.

This is bad news for the authorities, last year, officials were credited for their sincere, concerted, and coordinated efforts of the state’s forest and police departments for zero poaching.

 It may be noted that the rhino poaching incident, the first one recorded this year, comes in the wake of the Assam Police’s efforts which saw the state record zero rhino deaths due to poaching in the calendar year 2022.

On January 1, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that no rhino poaching incident took place in the year 2022 in Kaziranga and across the state. Poaching of rhinos was rampant in the past, which has now come down drastically due to stringent surveillance and other elevated security arrangements in Kaziranga National Park being put in by the authorities.

The highest number of poaching, as per his shared data, was in 2013 and 2014 at 27 each.

In 2015 and 2016, the number of rhinos killed by poachers was 17 and 18, respectively, which subsequently declined to two in 2020 and 2021 and zero in 2022.