Jorhat, May 20: A forest guard, Ananta Dev Sarma, in-charge of the Pichhla anti-poaching camp in Orang National park, was suspended today for alleged dereliction of duty after an adult female rhino was killed by poachers last night and its horn and tail taken away.

With rich forest and wildlife the Northeast is known as ‘Green Lungs of India’.

The region is one of the seven original biodiversity hotspots in the world, but most of its animals and birds are increasingly ending on food tables not only of the tribals who traditionally take such food but also of others including the large number of forces posted there.There are startling revelations that armed forces also indulge in hunting for food and sports in the border region.

India needs to take lessons from the killing of rhinos in South Africa in order to take pre-emptive lessons in protecting its tigers.

Three rhinos are being killed every day in South Africa for their horns, which outrival the price of gold in the black market. Rhino poaching is being carried out by sophisticated criminal syndicates who are smuggling these horns to Asia.

New Delhi: The surge of poaching of rhinoceros in South Africa could lead to threats to the one-horned Indian rhino in Assam and West Bengal if the African country decides to go ahead and demand opening the international trade in rhino horns. Speaking at the first stock taking meeting of the World Bank-led Global Tiger Recovery Programme in Delhi, Keshav Varma, programme director of the Global Tiger Initiative, warned that South Africa, unable to contain poaching, was inclined towards opening the trade in rhino horns.

The third and final report on the death of a rhinoceros at the Delhi Zoo has confirmed that anthrax infection was not the cause of death. The National Centre of Disease Control report of tests conducted on blood samples of a male one-horned rhino that died on April 28 reached the Zoo authorities on Monday.

“The third report has come negative for anthrax. Everything has become normal again at the zoo and the barricades that restricted visitors’ entry to the rhino enclosure have been removed,” said R A Khan, curator of National Zoological Park, on Tuesday.

In a nation where a civil war and years of political deadlock have stunted prosperity and development, the burgeoning rhino population is one of Nepal's rare success stories.

The Himalayan country's endangered one-horned rhinoceros has increased its numbers significantly over recent years thanks to tightened security against poachers and community conservation programmes.

Wildlife experts spent a month last year conducting an exhaustive survey and counted 534 rhinos in Nepal's southern forests -- 99 more than when the last such census was carried out in 2008.

The anthrax scare reported from the Delhi zoo after the death of a rhinoceros abated on Thursday as test reports cleared doubts over anthrax infection as the cause of death. The reports, submitted by the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Bareilly and a private lab in Delhi, were negative for anthrax infection, officials said.

Petty hunters, corrupt wildlife officials and Asian traffickers have all been snared in South Africa’s crackdown on rhino poaching as special prosecutors battle syndicates feeding the trade in horns.
More than 160 people are currently before the courts, exposing the complex supply chain stretching from South African parks to Southeast Asian consumers, said Joanie Spies, a prosecutor with the Rhino Project.
‘Slowly but surely we’re moving upwards and getting higher people who did not pull the trigger,’ Spies said.

Anthrax Not Confirmed, Officials Look For Likely Source
New Delhi: Anthrax, the bacterial disease which is suspected to have killed a rhinoceros at Delhi zoo, is unknown in Delhi but there have been outbreaks in other places across the country, scientists specializing in veterinary research said on Tuesday. In recent years, outbreaks have been reported from Karnataka (1999 and 2001), Orissa (2003 and 2005) and West Bengal (2000).

Rhino Dies Of Symptoms; Tests On
New Delhi: The death of a rhinoceros at the National Zoological Park, Delhi, has triggered an anthrax alarm as the animal showed symptoms of the bacterial disease which is fatal in most cases.