Rhino poaching continues in the Kaziranga National Park

Three .303 rifle bullets were recovered from the carcass. According to Ashok Kumar of the wildlife trust of India, about 20 rhinos were poached in Kaziranga in 2007. This is the highest in over a decade and also a dramatic rise in comparison to the five rhinos killed in 2006. A single rhino horn, prized as an aphrodisiac in the far east, could sell for as much as U.S. $ 40,000. In addition to using guns fitted with silencers or even telescopic rifles to kill from a distance, the poachers dig holes along paths used by rhinos, identified by dung heaps (these pachyderms defaecate at one place continuously for several days). Officials suspect that poachers may also have been helped by local communities, including those from the river islands of the Brahmaputra.

February 2008