Stray rhino in Jorhat, bid to drive it into park

JORHAT: The rhino that strayed out of Kaziranga National Park and injured nine persons in Lakhimpur and Majuli last week reached Potiagaon village on the outskirts of Jorhat town on Thursday morning.

The pachyderm took shelter on Majuli island for the past three days and then crossed the Brahmaputra from Majuli on Wednesday night. Forest department officials are guarding the pachyderm and no untoward incident has been reported so far.

"The stray rhino swam across the Brahmaputra in the early hours of Thursday and reached Potiagaon this morning. Villagers saw the rhino around 5am and informed us. Our staff rushed to the spot and are guarding the rhino to avoid any untoward incident," said forest range officer (Jorhat) Kushal Deka.

Deka added forest staff are trying to chase the rhino back into Kaziranga. "We also opened fire in the air to chase the rhino towards Kaziranga. But it is still hiding in some jungles near the village," he said.

The rhino sustained some injuries when it was chased away by forest staff and villagers from Lakhimpur to Majuli last week. In Lakhimpur, it attacked eight villagers including seven at Borsola market and one at Panigaon in the district on December 19 and 20 respectively. In Majuli, it attacked a person on the island's Patorichook village on December 21. All the injured persons were admitted to hospital for treatment.

Meanwhile, the other rhino which strayed out of Kaziranga was reportedly on its way back to the park on Thursday. Forest staff said the rhino is now taking shelter at a sandbar in the Brahmaputra.

DFO (Kaziranga) S K Seal Sharma said, "The rhino which was taking shelter in the border areas of Arunachal Pradesh in Lakhimpur district is now on its way back towards the park. It has already crossed Majuli and reached Gosai Chapori under Golaghat forest range on Thursday. We expect the animal will enter the park periphery in the next one or two days."

Two adult rhinos strayed out of Kaziranga about a fortnight ago and visited several places in Golaghat, Jorhat and Lakhimpur district. They created panic among the villagers and forest staff were guarding them to prevent any untoward incidents.