Guwahati: At least three persons were arrested on Thursday for their alleged involvement in illegal rhino horn smuggling in Assam’s Nagaon district.

Based on specific information, Nagaon police launched a search operation in the Ambagan locality of Rupohihat. During the search operation, police arrested three smugglers and recovered the rhino horn.

The arrested accused have been identified as Khaliluddin, Jakir Hussain, and Akbar Ali, all are residents of Rupohihat.

Earlier this year, two suspected poachers were arrested with a rhino horn at Kaliabor in Assam’s Nagaon district in the month of January.

As per sources, the police team conducted an operation and nabbed the two accused at the Hatigaon area and recovered a rhino horn from their possession. The arrested individuals had been identified as Abdul Ali and Kusum Ali, both hailing from Misa near the Hatigaon tea estate.

On the other hand, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the no-compromise attitude of the state government towards poaching and poachers has brought down the numbers from two each in 2020 and 2021 to zero in 2022.

However, the year 2022 turned out to be a significant year for Assam’s wildlife. The last year not only witnessed several crackdowns on the trafficking of wildlife species from Southeast Asia but also witnessed a complete drop in rhino poaching, Sarma added.

It may be mentioned that from 2012 to 2016, in five years, 100 rhinos were killed by poachers, mostly in Kaziranga National Park alone. The figures for those five years are as such- 2012: 11, 2013: 27, 2014: 27, 2015: 17, 2016: 18.