Three persons, including two former terrorists, have been arrested for their alleged involvement in recent incidents of rhino poaching in Kaziranga National Park.
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.
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.
A two-member division bench of Gauhati high court comprising Justice AK Goel and Justice N K Singh has directed Assam government to evict encroachers from certain new additions to Kaziranga National Park, the famous abode of one-horned rhinos in Assam, and handover the same to the national park authority within three months after completion of the entire process.
An unmanned aircraft on Monday hovered over for about 30 minutes over the Kaziranga National Park in Assam after state Forest Minister Rakibul Hussain inaugurated the test flight, ushering in an era of hi-tech anti-poaching measures at the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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.
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.
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.
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Several places in Arunachal Pradesh, including capital Itanagar, were cut off by floods and landslides.
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.
Another rhino was killed by poachers at Kaziranga National Park in Assam on Saturday with the toll rising to seven at the UNESCO World Heritage site.
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.
The annual monitoring of tigers in the Kaziranga National Park using camera traps in the years 2009, 2010 and 2011 has recorded a total of 118 individual tigers (adults, sub-adults and cubs) including the six photo identified tigers that died during the period of study.
The state's tourism ambassador shared these adorable pictures from her trip.
The death of 39 rhinos in and around the world-famous Kaziranga National Park in less than 10 months has brought to the fore the threat faced by the endangered animal.
Three more rhinos were found dead on Monday in the flood waters of the Kaziranga National Park which has witnessed a sudden rise in poaching activities in the last few weeks.
One more rhinoceros was found dead on Saturday in the flood waters at Assam's Kaziranga National Park. While a total of six rhinos have died in the past four days in poaching and flood-related incidents, the toll since the third wave of floods began on September 21 has gone up to 10.
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The flood situation in Assam remained grim on Wednesday with a railway track washed away in Lakhimpur district disrupting railway traffic with Arunachal Pradesh.
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.
Here's a recap of the events from the past 24 hours.
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 20 per cent increase in the tiger population in India is certainly good news, but the big cat is still in danger. In its efforts to conserve the national animal, Aaranyak, a prominent society for bio-diversity conservation, carried out a camera trap survey in Assam's sprawling Kaziranga National Park. Here are some interesting findings.
Lack of modern weapons for forest guards has proved to be a major roadblock in tackling the increasing incidents of poaching in Assam.
Poachers gunned down a full-grown female rhino in the famous Assam Kaziranga National Park and took way her horn in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
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.
A large number of tour operators, hoteliers and people living out of the tourism activities in an around the Kaziranga National Park, famous abode of one-horned rhinoceros in Assam, have launched an agitation opposing the plan to upgrade the wildlife sanctuary into a Project Tiger.
Heavy flooding has caused animals at Kaziranga and Pabitora to move to higher land, making them more vulnerable to poaching.
British royal couple Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton on Thursday visited the Kaziranga National Park in a jeep safari.
There is good news for activists fighting to save the dwindling population of tigers in India. A sample survey in Kaziranga National Park in Assam, which is being carried out by the conservation group Aaranyak under the aegis of the Assam Forest and Wildlife Department, has indicated that a sizeable tiger population has survived in the sprawling wildlife sanctuary.The recent deaths of ten tigers in Kaziranga had alarmed the authorities.
In Assam, the police took the unusual route of using elephants to evict hundreds of people living illegally in a protected forest area in the country's remote north-east.
With two more deaths, the fatalities due to flood this year has gone up to 18.
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.
Even as the green brigade has raised the alarm over the possibility of poaching as the reason behind tiger deaths in the famous Kaziranga National Park in Assam, the Wildlife authority in Assam attributes reasons other than poaching as the cause behind the deaths. Ten tigers in the park have been found dead since November 2008.
Three poachers were on Wednesday killed in two encounters with forest guards in Kaziranga National Park in Assam. On a tip off about the entry of a group of poachers into the park, forest guards launched an operation in Burapahar Range, Divisional Forest Officer S K Sil Sarma said.
The park will be opened on Thursday although the authorities were yet to complete the flood-damage repair works. Three waves of floods from the River Brahmaputra left a trail of destruction inside the park. Most of its roads and bridges were left in shambles by the flood waters.
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.
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