A dead rhino was found floating in floodwaters in Assam after poachers brutally cut off its horn. It is the 14th rhino slaughtered this year, AFP reports.
The female rhino had strayed out the flooded wildlife park to escape the water on Tuesday night, authorities said. Park warden Dibyadhar Gogoi told AFP, “It is sad that poachers hacked off the horn and a portion of the right ear of the rhino that is still alive and battling for life”. A second rhino was shot and wounded in the wildlife park, according to officials. Rhino horns are usually highly priced their so-called “aphrodisiac qualities”.
The Kaziranga National Park is a sanctuary for the world’s largest concentration of one-horned rhinos, with 2,290 beasts roaming around the 430-sq. km. park. There are 3,300 one-horned rhinos left in the world, putting it under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s “vulnerable” list. Recent floods in Assam have submerged 2,600 villages, according to official figures. The wildlife park is still under water, including around 400,000 hectares of crop lands.
