Poachers target rhino inside Assam zoo

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The Telegraph, Guwahati, 04 Aug 2005.

Link:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050804/asp/guwahati/story_5071747.asp

 

 

Poachers target rhino inside Assam zoo

A STAFF REPORTER

Guwahati, Aug. 3: In one of the most audacious poaching attempts in

Assam, miscreants tried to electrocute a rhino inside its enclosure

at the state zoo early yesterday.

 

Had it not been for a police team that had fortuitously entered the

sprawling zoo to search for militants just when the poachers were at

work, the rhino would have been electrocuted and its priceless horn

taken away. The 26-year-old rhino, named John, has been in the zoo

since it was rescued from Mayong in 1980. There are eight rhinos at

the zoo now.

 

Narayan Mahanta, the divisional forest officer in charge of the zoo,

admitted to a " serious security lapse " .

 

The incident occurred between midnight and 2 am. The miscreants

ostensibly entered the zoo through the boundary wall, which has

gaping holes, near the rhino enclosure.

 

Geetanagar police, who registered a case and questioned 12 people in

connection with the abortive attempt to kill the rhino, said the

poachers had connected a flexible wire to the electricity socket of a

toilet inside a house adjacent to the zoo.

 

" They were planning to connect a barbed wire, which they had already

thrown inside the rhino enclosure, to the flexible wire. But before

they could connect the two wires, zoo guards were alerted by the

heavy thumping of the agitated rhino, " a police official said.

 

The guards arrived after the miscreants fled, while the police team

went after them.

 

An official of the Assam State Electricity Board said the rhino could

have been killed by an electric shock. " Though a single 220-volt jolt

might not kill a rhino, a continuous stream of electricity could be

fatal. "

 

The zoo has 10 guards, who, a police officer said, " may have become

complacent as a zoo is not exactly a place where one would expect

much action " .

 

The jittery zoo authorities today set up a 24-hour control room

within the premises. " Visitors will be thoroughly frisked and all

details of vehicles coming to the zoo will be recorded, " Mahanta said.

 

He said the security measures might inconvenience visitors, but they

would have to bear with the zoo authorities. " This is a big lesson to

us and we will have to tie up all loose ends, " he said.

 

Zoo staff found wires and an axe near the rhino enclosure. The police

said they would question the staff members who were on duty that

night.

 

The police, however, said it was premature to assume that the retired

government employee from whose house the miscreants tried to get an

electric connection had anything to do with the incident.

 

" The toilet is located outside the house. We questioned the owner

yesterday and today, but got nothing out of it, " he added.

 

The police said the zoo wo-uld remain vulnerable to such attempts if

the authorities did not plug the holes in the boun-dary wall, which

was detected by the security personnel during their search

operations.