Kaziranga: Two forest guards injured in poachers' attack

Hemanta Kumar Nath | India Blooms News Service
Guwahati, May 5 (IBNS): Two forest guards were injured in attack by suspected poachers in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park (KNP) on Sunday evening, officials said.

The jawans of Assam Forest Protection Force (AFPF) were attacked by suspected poachers near Kathalchang forest camp under Burhapahar forest range office inside the park.

“The jawans were attacked by the suspected poachers by using sophisticated weapons inside the world heritage site, when they were vigil inside the park,” an official of KNP said.

The injured forest guards were admitted to Nagaon Bhogeswari Phukanoni civil hospital.

Top officials of park authority and forest department had rushed to the area and launched serach operation to nab the attackers.

Poachers killed at least 19 one horned rhinoceros in Kaziranga in past four months.

To protect wild animals inside and outside the park, the Assam forest department had deployed 300 jawans of AFPF and recently test drive a drone in Kaziranga.

2329 rhinos were found in the national park in recent rhino census report.

Source: http://www.indiablooms.com/NewsDetailsPage/2013/newsDetails060513c.php

Leopardess found killed near Mysore

Lawrence Milton, TNN May 5, 2013
MYSORE: A two-year-old leopardess in Mysore appears to be killed and its paws have been removed by miscreants near Hunsur on Sunday.

The leopard was found dead at one Puttamma's land near Pakshirajapura in Hunsur forest range. The cause for its death is not known. Visceral samples have been sent to Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biological in Mysore to establish the cause of death.

The incident came to light early on Sunday of the landlady Puttamma noticed the big cat lying dead.

An official said the leopardess carcass is still fresh and suspect it may have been killed for claws as all its limbs have been cut off with a weapon. There are no external injuries over the body.

Hunsur forest territory DCF Vijaykumar told TOI that three days back we got a complaint from residents of Pakshirajapura that a leopard is on prowl near their village and south forest department's help. We later placed a cage with dog as bait. But we found the leopard dead a few metres away from the cage on Sunday morning. However, the dog is alive.

There is no injury over its body and we believe it could have died of starvation, claims the DCF.

To a query, Vijaykumar said some miscreants may have removed after its death and as of now we have no evidence of poaching the animal. However, we are investigating to go deep into the incident because this is for the first time claws of the leopard have been removed. We have filed a police case, the DCF stated.

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-05-05/mysore/39042113_1_leopardess-dcf-forest-department

Herd of wild elephants kills one, destroys houses in Assam

PTI | May 5, 2013

The jumbos entered a village in Numaligarh area
creating panic among the people by trampling
one person to death and going on a rampage
pulling down the thatch houses on Saturday night.

GUWAHATI: A man was trampled to death and 15 houses damaged by a herd of wild elephants in upper Assam's Golaghat district, official sources said today.

The jumbos entered a village in Numaligarh area creating panic among the people by trampling one person to death and going on a rampage pulling down the thatch houses last night, the sources said.

The deceased has been identified as Durga Koya. Forest department personnel rushed to the village and were making efforts to guide the pachyderms to a nearby forest, they said.

With panic prevailing in the area as the elephants were still roaming about freely, the local people have urged the forest department to provide them security from the animals.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Herd-of-wild-elephants-kills-one-destroys-houses-in-Assam/articleshow/19897138.cms