A one-horn rhinoceros was shot at and its horn sawed off by poachers in flooded Kaziranga national park of Assam on Wednesday.
As the visuals of the giant animal, which was still alive, were telecast on local television, hundreds of angry residents of Golaghat and Nagaon area came out and blocked the national highways, accusing the forest minister being indifferent to plight of wild animals in world famous Kaziranga National Park.
Profusely bleeding, the rhinoceros, as seen in the visuals, was unable to get up, but struggling to fight back.
The bizarre incident took place at the Rangaraga on the periphery of the 480 sq km park.
As people were protesting, the park authorities recovered another dehorned body of rhinoceros from Bagori range of the national park on Wednesday.
In what has sparked an outrage among the wildlife activists also, a total of 14 one-horn-rhinoceros have so far been killed in Kaziranga within this year alone.
Meanwhile, the park authorities on Wednesday claimed that their doctors are struggling to save the life of a rhinoceros, which was shot at and its horn cut off by poachers on Wednesday.
The park officials blamed it to flood, which has inundated much of the Kaziranga National Park, forcing animals to migrate to higher grounds.
Pointing out that the animals are migrating from park to higher land and in the process they are crossing over busy highways, the park authorities claimed that trailing guards have not been able to keep track of all the animals.
The wildlife experts are of view that rhino horn powder is coveted in some Asian countries as a medicine or an aphrodisiac and its popularity has led to a rise in rhino poaching.
The wildlife experts have been demanding a high-level probe into the rhino killings in the state as they suspect involvement of organised poaching syndicates into the gruesome killings of rhinoceros in Assam.