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

In a major success in Assam’s fight against rhino poachers, a poacher was killed by forest guards of the Kaziranga National Park on Saturday after a fierce gun battle overnight.

The exchange of gunfire took place at the Agoratoli Range of the Kaziranga National Park.

According to sources, 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.

Speaking to the media, the Director of Kaziranga National Park, Sonali Ghosh said that after getting inputs from the intelligence of suspected poachers trying to enter the Kaziranga National Park, a team of forest guards was alerted and were engaged in overnight gun fight with the poachers.

She said that 3-4 poachers entered the National Park, while one died in the gun fight, the rest managed to escape.

Director Ghosh also informed that arms and ammunitions like .315 rifle which is specially used for rhino poaching have been recovered. Hunt for the other poachers is on.

Earlier on January 22 this year, the first case of rhino poaching in Kaziranga National Park was reported. This after 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 around 2,613 rhinos in the Park and efforts to keep them safe is on.