Jorhat, March 18: Jogeswar Baruah, a forest guard, was injured when he was attacked by a rhino inside Kaziranga National Park this morning, a day after a domestic elephant was injured after being attacked by a rhino.

The injured guard has been admitted to Guwahati for treatment.

Forest officials said the incident happened when a group of forest guards was patrolling Bagoridonga early this morning.

“The rhino charged at the guards. The guards fired several rounds in the air to scare the rhino, but it attacked Baruah,” an official said.

Yesterday, a domestic elephant used by the Kaziranga authorities to ferry tourists inside the park was attacked by a rhino.

The incident took place at Mihumukh under Kohora range of the park.

The elephant received injuries in several parts of the body and is at present undergoing treatment.

Incidents of rhino attacks on forest guards at Kaziranga have increased in the recent times and the park authorities directed them to be extra cautious while discharging duty inside the park.

At least two forest guards died while several others were injured in encounters with rhinos in the past year.

On December 1 last year, two forest guards of Kaziranga were injured in a rhino attack near Bahubeel forest camp under Bagori range of the park.

On April 7 last year, a senior forest guard of the park died in a rhino attack near Kartik forest camp under the Kohora forest range. In a similar incident on February 6, another forest guard was killed in the Agoratoli forest range.

The guard was on duty when a rhino charged him and although he tried to open fire, the rhino knocked him down and killed him.

A Kaziranga official said there has been an increase in rhino population at the national park in recent times and this was probably the main reason for the frequent confrontation of forest guards with rhinos.

“The rhino population at the park probably has crossed the 2,500 mark. We will be sure only after the census, which is scheduled to be held on March 25. In the last count carried out three years back, 2,048 rhinos were found at the national park,” the official said.

Several rhinos of Kaziranga have strayed out of the park in recent times.

Three rhinos are currently moving along the Brahmaputra chaporis within the Jorhat forest division, which is about 70km from Kaziranga.