21.9.09

Kaziranga horror

Poachers gunned down an elephant and chopped off its tusks and trunk in Karbi Anglong district near the Kaziranga National Park. Forest officials found the carcass of the jumbo, with the mark of a bullet wound on its head, on Saturday. According to sources, the elephant might have been killed about three days ago. A machete, of the kind used by tribal groups, was found in the area between Panbari Reserve Forest near Kaziranga and Dalamara forest range. Elephants often use Panbari as a corridor to move between Kaziranga and Karbi Anglong. ‘‘The injury marks show that a rifle was used to kill the jumbo. And, in all probability, the poachers used the machete to cut off its trunk. They have killed the elephant in a gruesome manner,’’ said Garga Mohan Das, project officer of WWF-India’s Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong Landscape Conservation Programme.
A tiger was found dead outside the Kohra forest range of Kaziranga on Saturday, sparking suspicions of revenge killing by angry residents of adjoining villages. With this, the death toll of big cats in the national park has risen to three this year. The carcass was spotted beyond the park boundary, near an upcoming resort in the Mohpara area. The tiger was aged between seven and eight years. Forest officials ruled out a poaching bid, for the carcass had not been mutilated and no organs were missing.

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