GUWAHATI: In a significant boost to rhino conservation efforts in Assam, no cases of rhino poaching were reported in the state in 2022.
This marks the first time in over two decades that there have been no cases of rhino poaching in the state.
On Monday, Special DGP Gyanendra Pratap Singh shared official data showing a significant drop in rhino poaching incidents in the state. He stated that the Assam Police will continue their efforts against poachers and wildlife smugglers through an intensified anti-poaching campaign in the future.
“Anti-rhino poaching efforts in the state have yielded spectacular results. There has been no rhino poaching in Assam in the year 2022. The last poaching was reported on December 28, 2021, at Hilakunda in the Kohora area of the Golaghat district. We would strive to keep the graph flat,” Singh said.
According to the data shared by the special DGP, the highest number of recorded rhino poaching cases in Assam occurred in 2013 and 2014, with 27 cases reported each year. In 2012, there were 11 reported poaching cases.
In 2016, the state recorded 18 cases of rhino poaching while 17 such cases were recorded in 2015.
However, there was a decline in rhino poaching cases in 2017 with only six such incidents reported in that year, followed by a marginal increase with seven cases in 2018, and again a dip in the next three years with three cases in 2019 and just two cases each in the years 2020 and 2021.
In 2007, as many as 16 rhino poaching cases were recorded in the state even as the crime graph dipped in the subsequent four years to six (2008), six (2009), five (2010) and three cases in the year 2011.
From the millennium year to 2007, all such cases reported were in single figures, with four cases reported in the year 2000 followed by cases doubling to eight in 2001 and then again a dip with four cases in 2002, three in 2003, four in 2004. In 2005, seven cases were reported while five cases were reported in the year 2006.
Presenting a list of achievements in the bygone year, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had on Sunday said that among other significant accomplishments in 2022, ‘zero rhino poaching’ was a landmark feat of the police and forest personnel.
“This is a landmark year that, after probably 20 to 25 years, not a single case of rhino poaching was reported in the state, be it from Kaziranga National Park, Manas National Park, Orang National Park or Pobitora National Park,” the CM had said.
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“In the past few years also, there has been a considerable reduction in rhino poaching cases even as a few such cases were reported in the state,” Sarma said while lauding the efforts of the Assam Police and state forest department to keep rhino poachers at bay.
Nearly 85% of the global Indian rhinoceros population resides in Assam.
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