Hours after Royal visit, another rhino killed at Kaziranga

A day after British royal couple Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton visited the Kaziranga National Park, a rhinoceros was killed and its horn taken away by poachers, a forest official said on Thursday.

This has brought the total number of rhinos killed in KNP this year to seven.

Just two days earlier, another rhino was poached from the park.

A male adult rhino was killed and its horn taken away by armed poachers on Wednesday night, KNP Divisional Forest Officer Subhashis Das said. The carcass of the rhino was recovered from a place under Burhapahar range of the Park.

Das said 88 empty cases of AK-47 cartridges were found from the spot. The poachers shot the rhino, sawed off its horn while it was still alive before fleeing, he said.

William and Kate took a safari through the national park on Wednesday. They also went to the Dunga and RowmariForest camps mostly inhabitated by rhinos and tigers in the park.

Ironically, William had enquired about the challenges the forest guards faced in their efforts to keep the animals safe from poachers and if they required superior weapons, and was informed about the anti-poaching measures adopted to reduce the killing of rhinos.

Image: A one-horned Indian rhinoceros walks in the floodwaters of the KNP. The park, a World heritage Site, is the world largest refuge to the great Indian one-horned rhinoceros. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/reuters