With rhino poachers creating havoc in the Kaziranga National Park, the Assam government has sent a proposal to the Union government for raising a Rhino Protection Force with more than 1,200 personnel while National Investigative Agency's help would be sought to bust the international rhino-poaching racket.
The flood situation in Assam has deteriorated with 15 districts reeling under its impact, as large parts of Dibru-Saikhowa and Kaziranga National Park and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary submerged and five deaths reported so far, official sources said on Sunday.
The Assam forest department is keen to arm forest guards in Kaziranga National Park with sophisticated weapons like AK series assault rifles to counter the new brand of rhino poachers who are using sophisticated weapons.
As the autumn has set the stage for the winter to rule the atmosphere in the picturesque North East India's hills and valleys, enchanting destinations in the region are ready to welcome visitors in the coming tourists' season. K Anurag reports.
The couple are currently staying in the Wild Maseer resort at Balipara, in the picturesque Sonitpur district of Assam. They are accompanied by their toddler son Azad and close friends.
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As the state Wildlife and Forest Department's all 'efforts to gear up vigil in the habitats of endangered one-horned Asiatic rhinoceros' has come to a naught, the All Assam Students Union alleging nexus between rhino poachers and a section of people in power in the state has demanded an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation into incidents of rhino poaching in the state.
The Assam government has asked the CBI to probe the recent increase in rhino poaching in protected areas of the state.
Heavy flooding has caused animals at Kaziranga and Pabitora to move to higher land, making them more vulnerable to poaching.
The MV Ganga Vilas will traverse through 27 rivers over 52 days, covering over 3,200 km.
A rhino, left bleeding by poachers who removed its horn, succumbed to its injuries on Friday taking the number of total pachyderm deaths to five during the last three days in Assam's Kaziranga National Park.
At least 33 people have been killed in flash floods in Bihar till Tuesday evening and 25.71 lakh people are affected in 16 districts of the state.
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The army, SDRF and NDRF are assisting the district administrations in evacuating the affected population to safer places, the authority said.
Three persons, including two former terrorists, have been arrested for their alleged involvement in recent incidents of rhino poaching in Kaziranga National Park.
The flood situation in Assam continues to remain grim as the death toll has risen to 77. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi are scheduled to visit the state to assess the situation. Nearly 20 lakh have been displaced in the flood, the worst in the state in more than a decade.
Floods have wreaked havoc in the Kaziranga National Park, home to the largest concentration of the nearly extinct one-horned rhinoceros, inundating 90 per cent of the park area and drowning several animals.
Concerned over the recent frequent incidents of rhino poaching in Kaziranga National Park and other places in the state, the Assam government has moved the government to entrust the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe into a suspected conspiracy of certain forces with vested interests behind killing of the precious animal for its horn.
Four rhinoceros have been brutally killed by poachers in flood-hit Kaziranga National Park (KNP) since Tuesday, including one on Thursday, prompting an alarmed Assam government to ask for a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into it and post army in the fringe areas.
Poachers shot at a female rhino and sawed off its horn in upper Assam's Golaghat district on Wednesday morning, leaving the heavily bleeding pachyderm that had strayed out of flood-hit forest struggling for life.
The flood situation in Assam turned worse on Friday with most of the people in Dhemaji district affected by flood, while 75 per cent of Kaziranga National Park submerged by the deluge that has also affected Jorhat, Kamrup, Tinsukia, Sonitpur and Lakhimpur districts.
The flood situation in Assam remained grim on Wednesday with a railway track washed away in Lakhimpur district disrupting railway traffic with Arunachal Pradesh.
On the day when a private university in Assam organised a unique walkathon -- The Great Save Rhino Walkathon 2013 -- to raise awareness for protecting the one-horned rhinoceros in the state, poachers made mockery of the event by killing another precious rhino in Kaziranga National Park and took away its horn before the dawn on Sunday.
Assam's flood situation remained critical on Tuesday with over 6.71 lakh people affected in 20 districts in the second wave of flooding this year, as the Indian Air Force (IAF) rescued 13 stranded fishermen from the severely-hit Dibrugarh district, an official said.
At present, 2,265 villages were inundated and 1,12,667.06 hectares of crop area has been damaged across Assam, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said.
A gang of 18 notorious Karbi poachers who were behind butchering of at least six rhinos in Kaziranga National Park over the past three years have been caught by the Assam police.
Two more died in the state today. With this, the total number of people losing their lives in this year's flood and landslide has gone up to 115 across the state -- 89 were killed in flood-related incidents and 26 in landslides.
Lack of modern weapons for forest guards has proved to be a major roadblock in tackling the increasing incidents of poaching in Assam.
The flood situation in Assam continued to be grim with four more deaths in different areas of the state taking the toll to 35 even as the water level in some of the rivers have started receding, official sources said.
The flood situation remained grim in Assam on Tuesday, with the deluge inundating 167 villages in the largest river island Majuli besides washing away a baby rhino in Kaziranga National park.
Here's a glimpse of flood situation across north and northeast India.
Earlier, Raut said he has been holding discussions with Shinde and the talks are "positive".
The monsoon spelt mayhem in several parts of the country on Monday, particularly Mumbai where local train services and flight operations were hit and everyday life disrupted as well as Assam that was grappling with floods yet again.
A visit to a sanctuary of the one-horned rhino offers more adventure than Archana Pande bargained for.
While the flood waters receded in Bongaigaon and Sivsagar districts of Assam, fresh inundation occurred at a dozen villages in Nagaon even as four districts continued to reel under the impact of floods on Sunday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in the state is committed to ensuring that the indigeneous people have legal rights over their land, Modi said, after launching a drive to give ownership certificates to over one lakh families. Marking its launch, the prime minister distributed 'pattas' to 10 people at the historic 'Jerenga Pathar'.
The total number of people killed in flooding and landslides in the state this year has gone up to 76. While 50 people were killed in inundation, 26 died due to landslides.
Several places in Arunachal Pradesh, including capital Itanagar, were cut off by floods and landslides.
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Assam Environment and Forest Minister Rakibul Hussain has said that as many as 193 one-horned rhinos have been killed in various protected forest areas in Assam between 2001 and August 3, 2014.
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