Assam CM Travels Inside Kaziranga, Assesses Security in Vulnerable Zones

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday travelled inside Kaziranga National Park to personally assess various measures undertaken to eliminate poaching.

This comes amidst the recovery of the body of a rhino poacher who escaped police custody in Kaziranga earlier on Friday.

The poacher's body was found floating in the Brahmaputra River in Assam.

According to sources, the poacher, identified as Saidul Islam, escaped police custody while he was taken to the Bagori range of Kaziranga National Park to locate the rhino carcass that was killed and his horn was stolen.

Saidul was a resident of Lahorighat in the Nagaon district.

Last Friday, the Special Task Force (STF) of the Assam Police had launched an operation against a group of four rhino horn poachers in the Batadrava locality in Nagaon.

During the operation, the task force had apprehended one poacher, identified as Saidul Islam, and seized one rhino horn weighing 750 gram from his possession while the other three fled the scene.

The STF team then headed to the Bagori range of Kaziranga National Park with Saidul to locate the rhino carcass, but taking advantage of the darkness, the defendant managed to escape.

It was learnt that the group of poachers had bought the rhino horn to sell it in the Shantipur market of Batadrava.

Meanwhile, Assam chief minister specially visited the vulnerable zones on the banks of Brahmaputra and interacted with forest guards at camps and other officials.

Also Read: Absconding Rhino Poacher’s Body Found Floating in Brahmaputra River