Skirmish in Kaziranga

9 February, 2008

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Skirmish in Kaziranga

Guwahati, Feb. 9:

Suspected poachers attacked Kaziranga National Park personnel last night, sending out a grim message that they will stop at nothing to get to the rhinos.

A forest guard and a driver were injured in the offensive - the first in the history of Kaziranga National Park - near Sekoni tea estate under Jakhalabandha police station.

Sources said acting on a tip-off that some poachers were taking shelter at Amguri near Burapahar range in the western part of the park, some forest and police personnel went to raid the village.

“We arrived at the approach road to the village just after midnight and were deputing guards in different locations so that the poachers could not escape. Suddenly, a jeep came out of the village at a great speed and hit one of our vehicles,” a forest official, who was part of the team, said.

The jeep rammed into a Maruti Gypsy, which caught fire under the impact and was gutted. A .303 rifle and a revolver were destroyed in the fire.

Driver Aktel Ali and forest guard Rasul Ali were in the Gypsy when it was hit. They have been admitted to Nagaon Civil Hospital.

“It was a narrow escape. The fight against poachers has become very dangerous now as they are ready to take any risk,” the forest official said, indicating the growing confidence and determination of the well-equipped and well-connected poachers.

He said the occupants of the jeep, suspected to be poachers, managed to flee. Three persons were seen running away from the vehicle soon after it hit the Gypsy.

The official said the poachers might have got information about the raid and had tried to escape. “But when they saw the guards and the police, the driver probably got nervous and hit the Gypsy.”

Another source, however, stressed that the suspected poachers had deliberately hit the Gypsy to send the message that they would stop at nothing. “It was a planned attack taken at a great personal risk to take the guards by surprise and help the other poachers holed up inside the village to escape by diverting the attention of the raiding party.”

A case has been registered at Jakhalabandha police station. The jeep has been seized.
A police official said investigations were on. “We are trying to locate the owner of the jeep. As of now we can only say the jeep belongs to a tourist resort near Kaziranga,” he added.

The incident comes at a time when forest minister Rockybul Hussain has taken stringent steps to check incidents of rhino-killing at Kaziranga. Poachers have already killed four rhinos this year. The government had recently deployed additional armed forest guards to the park to add teeth to the anti-poaching measures.