Environment / Assam

Guwahati, May 23: Poachers struck for the first time in Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary this year, electrocuting a female rhino and a calf this morning.

Divisional forest officer of Nagaon wildlife division Chandan Bora said the poachers had tied a naked wire to a bamboo pole and connected it to an overhead high tension line near the Tamulidova waterbody. ?The moment the animals came in contact with the wire, they were electrocuted,? Bora said.

Fifteen people have been rounded up for questioning, Bora said.

Experts said the poachers prefer electrocution, as it is a silent operation. They took...

TEZPUR, May 23 ? Considering the large scale illegal trade on wildlife contraband which has been regarded as the second most profitable business for smugglers and international dens, next only to narcotics, the ?Charwa Gunners? of the Indian Army apart from the strenuous task of counter insurgency operation has undertaken the ?Save Kaziranga Operations?, at the world famous Kaziranga National Park, the home of one horned Asiatic Rhino.

Talking to The Assam Tribune, official sources said that India has been an importer, exporter and a conduit for wildlife contraband that touches volumes of...

GUWAHATI, May 23?Poachers last night killed two rhinos ? a mother and her calf at Pobitora wildlife sanctuary, home to the second largest population of the endangered great Indian one-horned rhinoceros after Kaziranga National Park, and decamped with the horn. The two rhinos were killed by electrocution near the Kamarpur camp, adjacent to the roadside, the Pobitora ranger said. This is the second time in the last two-and-a-half-years that poachers electrocuted a rhino, but failed to take away the horn. Mentionably, Pobitora, situated at a distance of just 52 km from the city, shelters nearby...

GUWAHATI, May 23 ? A study conducted by the Soil Conservation Department recently, reveals that the degradation status of the city hills is ?almost directly related? to encroachments upon them. The study also reveals that the city?s 18 hills are covered by 75 villages, consisting of 26,985 households with a total population of 1,23,979. Ironically, this was the total population of the city in 1971, said the study.

The hills like Sunsali, Kalapahar, Khanapara, Nabagraha, Gandhibasti are subjected to ruthless devastation by the encroachers, while Basistha, Sonaighuli, Kamakhya etc, hills have...

GUWAHATI, May 22? For the forest guards of Assam, armed with outdated weapons, it is becoming impossible to deal with heavily armed militants, who frequent the reserve forests as well as poachers who have also started using sophisticated weapons like AK Series rifles. The Minister of State for Forest Pradyut Bordoloi admitted that the forest guards are hopelessly under-equipped to check felling of trees and movement of militants. For example, most of the forest guards in Kaziranga National Park are armed with only .315 rifles, while, in a recent incident of poaching, the poachers used AK-47...

GUWAHATI, May 20? Forest officials arrested a poacher, wanted in connection with poaching of rhino horns in Nagaon Wildlife Division of Assam recently, official sources said here.

The arrested man, identified as one Md Faizul, was arrested from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary under Nagaon wildlife division for killing a rhino and removing its horns.

The rhino had been killed by poachers by electrocution one year back, Divisional Forest Officer Chandan Bora said. A squad of forest personnel had chased the gang soon after the poaching and killed two poachers but two others managed to escape, Bora...

NEW DELHI, May 20? The very existence of Majuli ? the largest river island ? situated within the two arms of the mighty Brahmaputra, is under threat with acute erosion engulfing chunks of it, scientists have said. If no corrective measures through proper scientific planning and management are taken, Majuli, will soon be engulfed by Brahmaputra and become extinct from the world map, scientists from the Regional Research Laboratory and Dibrugarh University, said.

?When the river floods the state every year, the entire population of Majuli Island fears that it may be engulfed by the mighty...

Jorhat, May 18: It is not known whether she ever favours the bad guys, but Kako Mai certainly commands as much reverence from poachers as she does from the forest guards who protect the Kaziranga National Park.

An incarnation of Goddess Durga, Kako Mai is worshipped regularly by the protectors and the aggressors, albeit for different reasons. But it appears the poachers are finding it difficult to maintain the tradition of paying obeisance to the presiding deity of the forest before a hunt because that gives forest guards clues to their plans.

N.K. Vasu, director of the park, said forest...

GUWAHATI, May 17? Union Minister of State for Water Resources Bijoya Chakravarty today asserted that no water from the mighty Brahmaputra would be taken out if it harmed the interests of the State and the people. Speaking at a ?Meet-the-Press? programme at Guwahati Press Club today, Chakravarty sought to allay the apprehensions arising out of the Centre?s mega project of interlinking rivers of the country, and said the final decision on linking the Brahmaputra was still a far way off and that was to be taken after a careful scrutiny of all the relevant points of the issue.

?If at all any...

KOKRAJHAR, May 1 – The Chirang-Ripu reserve forest has been declared as an elephant reserve under the guidelines of the Centre’s “Project Elephant”. The reserve convers an area of 2600 sq km comprising six districts of Kokjrajhar, Bongaigaon, Barpeta, Nalibari, Kamrup and Darrang with seven forest divisions.

Meanwhile, senior forest officials said the Chirang-Ripu reserve has a minimum of 650 elephants and the number of pachyderms had registered a rise in the Haltugaon, Kachugaon and Aie valley wildlife division after the elephant census conducted in 2002. The officials were hopeful that...