“The guards accosted the group of poachers and engaged in a gun-battle but the poachers managed to escape under the cover of darkness by firing at the forest guards”, he said.
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During their visit, Prince William and Princess Kate talked to villagers and forest officials about anti-poaching measures.
The carcass of the rhino was recovered from a place under Burhapahar range of the Park.
Poachers had struck early Thursday morning in Kaziranga’s Burapahar range, sawing off the horn of a rhino after pumping it with 80 bullets from automatic weapons.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday ordered a probe into the killings of two rhinos, including one during the stay of Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton at Kaziranga National Park.
Expressing serious concern over the rhino killings in the past few days, the chief minister asked the additional chief secretary to find out the details and the circumstances of the killing of the rhinoceros and to fix up responsibility. This was the seventh rhino killed in the national park this year. As many as 88 cases of AK-47 cartridges were found from the spot.
The wildlife sanctuary in India’s northeastern Assam state is home to 2,400 one-horned rhinos, which accounts for two-thirds of the planet’s remaining population.
In the current year alone till date, seven rhinos have been poached in the Kaziranga National Park.
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Before setting out on the safari, the royal couple was welcomed in front of the Kaziranga Infomation Centre by Principal Chief Conservator of Forest O P Pandey and Additional PCCF N K Yadav with the traditional “Bihuwan”.
