Jorhat, Nov. 30: An attempt to kill rhinos at Orang National Park was foiled last night when a team of police and forest guards apprehended three poachers from a sapori (sandbar) near the park.
Two .303 rifles and 52 rounds of ammunition were recovered from them.
Park authorities claim that Nurul Islam, Isuf Ali and Momin Ali were involved in killing a few rhinos at the national park earlier and were planning yet another kill.
“Although they have not admitted to their involvement in earlier incidents, we have information that at least two of them had a hand in poaching,” an official said.
“We were on the lookout for Nurul, who is wanted in a few cases of poaching at the national park. Yesterday, we received information that he had been seen at Samguri sapori near the national park,” he said.
The park authorities immediately informed Dalgaon police and the joint forces planned to raid Isuf’s house at Samguri sapori at night.
When the joint team raided Isuf’s house late last night, they found the trio there.
“They were planning to enter the park in the wee hours today when we raided the house,” the official said.
“Samguri sapori is just across the Dhansiri and is only about 100 metres from the park boundary,” he added.
While the police team approached from the Dalgaon side on road, the forest team crossed the Dhansiri river and arrived at the sapori late at night.
“We were constantly in touch with the police team over phone so that the poachers could not escape. Finally, we raided Isuf’s house, where we found the three poachers and recovered the arms and ammunition,” he said.
The national park, which has about 100 rhinos, witnessed the killing of three rhinos this year. While two rhinos — a mother and her calf — were shot dead on November 10, another rhino was killed on November 3. A rhino each had been killed in the park in 2011 and 2012.
Forest officials claim to have identified at least two poachers who were involved in the killing of the two rhinos on November 10 but said they have fled to Dimapur in Nagaland.
