GUWAHATI: Poachers shot dead two endangered one-horned rhinos fleeing a flooded Indian wildlife sanctuary, taking the number killed this year into double figures, officials said yesterday.
The poachers took away the animal’s horns after using silenced light automatic rifles to kill them near the Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern Indian state of Assam.
“The two rhinos killed were among hundreds of animals that have fled the sanctuary to take shelter in highlands and some strayed away to nearby human settlement areas making them vulnerable to poachers,” park warden S Buragohain said by telephone.
Poachers have killed at least 12 one-horned rhinos this year at the sanctuary, which lies some 220 kilometres east of Guwahati, Assam’s main city. 
It was the first time in a decade that the number of rhinos killed in a year had hit double figures, officials said.
 “We are trying our best to check poaching and have killed three poachers and arrested six others so far this year,” the warden said. About a dozen deer and wild boars have also drowned in the floodwaters submerging the whole park.
But wildlife rangers have rescued some 18 animals, including deer and elephant calves, which have been taken to a nearby shelter. Research indicates 1,855 of the world’s estimated 2,700 one-horned rhinos live in Kaziranga.
 Rhino horns are used for traditional Chinese medicine and to make ornamental dagger handles in the Middle East. They reportedly sell for up to $37, 000  per kilo in the international market.
The rhinos and a lot of other animals have fled from the widlife sanctuary over the past few weeks due to the heavy rains the region has been facing in the recent past.
Monsoon floods in Assam have displaced an estimated 6.7mn people and killed 24 others. But rains have eased and many villagers are returning home. – Agencies