Talking to IANS, Arun Vignesh, the Divisional Forest Officer at Eastern Wildlife Division said: "The rhino carcass was found in a waterbody in central Kaziranga range. It was an absolutely natural death."According to the officer, at least 70-80 rhinos die naturally in Kaziranga every year.Although the rhino was an adult one, it’s age could not be ascertained by the forest department.In the previous week, carcass of a rhino was recovered at Bhuyanpara range near Rupohi camp of Assam's Manas National Park, and officials claimed that the wild animal had a natural death, refuting the chances of any poaching attempt.Vaibhav C. Mathur, director of Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve said: "It was a natural death. We have confirmed it. The horns were also recovered."The one-horned rhino whose carcass was found on Saturday was shifted to Manas from Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve in 2013."It was a male rhino around 18-years-old. Most probably the rhino died due to infighting with other wild animals. We are looking into it," Mathur said.According to the forest officer, this was the third natural death of a rhino in Manas National Park this year. One rhino fell in the hands of poachers in the month of June. --IANStdr/kvd(Disclaimer: This post has been auto published from IANS news agency without any modification to the text and has not been reviewed by editor)
