Forest officials at the poaching site at Pobitora on Friday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, Oct. 14: Jorba, a Belgian Malinois which has been brought from Slovakia to help forest officials in Assam to track down poachers, was in action straight away and has been able to provide some leads after a female rhino was poached in Pobitora wildlife sanctuary last evening.

This is the first time in Assam’s wildlife history that dogs have been pressed into service for helping forest officials get more clues to arrest the poachers.

“For the first time in Assam’s wildlife history, a dog was pressed into service. Jorba was requisitioned and pressed into finding clues. The progress has been good as some leads have been given by the dog,” S.K. Seal Sharma, divisional forest officer, Guwahati wildlife division, told The Telegraph.

Pobitora wildlife sanctuary falls under Guwahati wildlife division.

The rhino carcass was detected last evening outside the wildlife sanctuary.

“The horn of the rhino was missing but there were no bullet marks on it. However, as the horn is missing this is a case of poaching,” Sharma said.

Doctors from the College of Veterinary Sciences examined the animal and did not find any bullet marks. “Samples of the internal viscera have been taken for examination,” Sharma said.

This is the second incident of rhino poaching this year to have hit the wildlife sanctuary, which has the distinction of having the heaviest rhino density in the world. The first incident happened on June 11 after five years of lull. There are 84 rhinos in 16 square km of Pobitora according to the 2009 census. Large number of poaching cases takes place outside the protected area as the rhinos often stray out.

“We got the request last night for the dog from Pobitora authorities. The dog was pressed into service at 9 in the morning,” Kaushik Barua, a wildlife lover, said.

Of the two dogs brought, one has been financed by Barua.

Jorba, financed by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, has been brought to Assam by Aaranyak. The foundation has been supporting a Wildlife Crime Monitoring Programme since 1994 with Aaranyak.

The dog tracked the area for about an hour and gave some directional leads, which will have to be followed by the forest department. “The dog tracked the area right up to a water body,” Barua said.

The only problem is that the area where the rhino was poached is outside the sanctuary and there were lots of disturbances.

“It was wonderful progress on the first encounter and we are happy that we have been able to provide some assistance to the forest department,” Barua said.

As the forest staff become acquainted with the ground rules, there will be substantial progress in tracking down poachers in the future. The area where the poaching takes place should be left undisturbed so that the clues remain. Barua said the dog could be pressed into service again if a request comes from the forest department. “The forest staff were proactive and they feel that the dog can be of great service,” he said.

The one-year-old male dog has been trained to track and detect wildlife products such as a tiger and leopard skin and bones, bear bile, ivory and others. It was trained at Dehradun in Uttarakhand.