Jorhat, Sept. 23: Three poachers were killed in a fierce encounter with forest guards at Kaziranga National Park in the wee hours today, barely two days after three poachers were apprehended from the World Heritage site.
The three are yet to be identified. Two of them have an indigenous appearance, fuelling suspicion that they could be sharpshooters from either Nagaland or Manipur, who are generally hired to carry out rhino killing in national parks of Assam.
“We were on an alert as poachers try to kill rhinos generally ahead of the festive season to make easy money. We also had information about a group of poachers planning to kill rhinos just before Durga Puja,” divisional forest officer D. Gogoi said.
The incident took place at 4.30am today when a patrol party of forest personnel accosted a group of poachers at Naltoli near the Halalpat forest camp under the Kohora range of the park. A fierce gunbattle followed where several rounds were exchanged. “When the gunfire stopped, we approached the area and found two bodies. We also recovered a .303 rifle and a bag containing dry fruits and flattened rice,” an official involved in the encounter said.
The forest guards also noticed a trial of blood from the area following which they encountered another poacher who was hiding in a bush about a kilometre away from the incident site. “It took us about four hours to locate him. He was injured but did try to flee. He fell down and succumbed to his injuries,” the official said.
The official said it could not be ascertained how many members were there in the group. “Forest guards mounted on elephants are scanning the national park to locate poachers who may have escaped,” the official said.
Kaziranga authorities have recently procured high-tech devices such as night-vision binoculars and fluorescent jackets to fight poachers, especially during the flood season. They have also distributed .303 rifles among guards to add teeth to the anti-poaching drive.
Forest department personnel have been working jointly with police of Golaghat, Karbi Anglong, Nagaon and Sonitpur in anti-poaching drives.
