Rhino poacher and horn trader held from Arunachal Pradesh

Guwahati, Feb 5 (IANS) In a major breakthrough, a notorious rhino poacher and smuggler of rhino horns, wanted in Assam, was arrested from Arunachal Pradesh's Naharlagun, officials said on Friday.Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve Director Karmashree P. Sivakumar said that the Assam Forest Department and Police personnel, in association with Arunachal Pradesh Police, arrested Jobi Gadi alias Autho Gadi, a resident of Arunachal Pradesh.Gadi has, since 2011, been associated with poaching of rhinos in Kaziranga and selling their horns in international markets.He is now being interrogated by Assam officials.Sivakumar said that Gadi was also involved in recent rhino poaching at Lokhora Chapori in Kaziranga.An Assam court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him following a series of such crimes by him.The Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, extending across Assam's Golaghat, Nagaon, Sonitpur, Biswanath and Karbi Anglong districts and along the Arunachal border, is home to more than 2,200 one-horned Indian rhinos. With an estimated rhinoceros population of 2,640, Assam has the largest number of Indian one-horned rhinos in the world.
--IANS sc/vd