Three persons were arrested for allegedly killing a one-horned rhino in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district. Officials said the rhino was found dead at Gorumara National Park on Tuesday, with its horn chopped off, which proved it was a case of poaching.
Bengal’s Gorumara National Park has a sizeable population of one-horned Indian rhinos. An estimated 50 animals of the endangered species live in the forest reserve, according to October 2015 figures of the World Wildlife Fund.
“As per veterinary officers, the death occurred within 24-48 hours prior to the time of detection and it is a possible case of toxicity,” media reports quoted Nisha Goswami, divisional forest officer of Gorumara, as saying on Wednesday.
Goswami said the suspects were being interrogated. “So far three people have been arrested. The investigation is going on as the case is not yet solved,” she said.
The last time when Gorumara reported the killing of one-horned rhino s was in April 2017. The carcasses of two rhinos in a decomposed state were spotted on two consecutive days in the same area.
In Jaldapara, about 75 km away, an adult rhino was killed and its horn chopped off in February this year. Six persons, including a sharpshooter from Arunachal Pradesh and a teacher, had been arrested in connection with the case.