MANOJ ANAND

With wildlife experts proposing more stricter laws to protect animals falling under Schedule-I, another incident of rhino poaching was reported from Kaziranga National Park on Monday.

MANOJ ANAND

With wildlife experts proposing more stricter laws to protect animals falling under Schedule-I, another incident of rhino poaching was reported from Kaziranga National Park on Monday.

The only protected area north of the Brahmaputra with a viable population of Indian rhinos is yet to receive due support from the authorities concerned. Orang National Park has continued to suffer from a number of drawbacks, including a shortage of staff. Conservation groups have repeatedly called for better protection to thenational park that has seen poachers eliminate a number of rhinos.

Probing eyes from space have revealed worrying facts about Manas National Park, including evidence that a mix of natural and anthropogenic factors is altering its landscape. The changes, experts believe, have implications for both flora and fauna, which once made it a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

After considerable delay, another phase of the ambitious plan to translocate rhinos to Manas is likely to get under way this December. The initiative would see up to eighteen rhinos being moved from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and Kaziranga National Park to Manas National Park in a well-orchestrated exercise spread over several months.

That poaching is rampant in India is hardly news and it would be an understatement to say that the menace is on the rise. But a recent news about a one-horned rhinoceros being killed at the Rajiv Gandhi Orang Wildlife Sanctuary, on the northern banks of the Brahmaputra, 140 km from Guwahati, gives pause for thought. Two poachers were killed in a shootout with forest guards on October 19.

Growing industrial activities, especially brick kilns, in the periphery of Pobitora wildlife sanctuary could pose a serious threat to the long

Armed with hi-tech weapons, they

After poachers were suspected to be responsible for the death of one of the rhinoceros at Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary in north Bengal, senior forest officials have decided to fill up the post of security guards that are lying vacant for the past few years.