Fatal road accident leads to recovery of rhino horn in Assam

Guwahati: A fatal road accident on Tuesday led to the uncovering of a case of poaching of one-horned rhino in Assam's Kamrup district, police said.

Police have recovered a rhino horn from a vehicle that collided head on with a bus around 6.30 a.m. on Tuesday near Baihata Chariali in Kamrup district, located close to Guwahati.

"While three persons travelling in the vehicle died, another is struggling for his life at a private hospital in Guwahati," police said, adding that a case has been registered in this regard and a probe is on.

"We have recovered a rhino horn, which has blood stains, butt of a country-made gun and some white powder-like substance from their possession. When we reached the accident spot, two of them had already died. We took the other two travellers of the vehicle to a hospital immediately. While one of them succumbed in the hospital, the second injured is struggling for life," police added.

Police said all the accident victims hail from Manipur.

Meanwhile, the forest department said they have no report of any poaching from any of the protected areas of the state.

Assam Forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma, however, said that she has asked the forest officials in Kaziranga National Park, Orang National Park and the Pabitora Wildlife sanctuaries to carry out search operations in the protected areas to find out if there was any poaching.