Jorhat, May 18: A poacher was killed and three .303 rifles recovered from his possession in an encounter with forest guards at Kaziranga National Park last night.

Forest officials claimed another poacher may have also died in the encounter and a search was on to find the body.

The slain poacher is yet to be identified.

Sixteen rounds of live cartridges, mobile phones, ATM cards, shoes and other articles were found from the site along with the three .303 rifles.

An official at Kaziranga said a patrol party of forest guards accosted a group of about seven poachers near Bornoloni camp under Bagori range of the park last night.

When challenged, the poachers opened fire on the group of forest guards.

In the retaliatory firing, a poacher died while the others escaped.

“We found the body from the encounter site only this morning. We are sure another poacher was hit by bullet. A search is on to apprehend the poachers who managed to flee,” the official said.

The official said forest guards mounted atop elephants have been scanning the park since early morning today to locate the group of poachers, which has probably entered from the northern side of the park by crossing the Brahmaputra.

He said sniffer dogs are also being used to trace the poachers.

“We had information about the group of poachers trying to enter the park to kill rhinos and therefore, security had been tightened in the past few days,” he said.