GUWAHATI: A sharpshooter escaping and hiding in the state of Assam has been arrested by the West Bengal police along with the state forest unit. The man has been identified as Leken Basumatari, and he is engaged with several rhino killings in Jaldapara, located in West Bengal and Gorumara and Kaziranga forests ranges of Assam.
Basumatari was nabbed following a joint operation initiated by the West Bengal police and forest department. Later, the accused was presented before the judicial magistrate in Alipurduar on 15th of February, Wednesday. The forest officials informed that, the accused along with his pals are connected with almost all of the rhino poaching cases in the national habitats.
Basumatari along with his team has been carrying out the smuggling activities since more than a decade now, the forest department added. The investigators during the process found that, Laken was also connected with the rhino poaching episode of April 2021. A friend of Laken was nabbed in connection with the incident and police had recovered rifles and live cartridges from their possession.
Back then, it was revealed that Laken had cut the horn of a rhino and managed to escape the consequences. However, in 2023, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma informed that zero rhinos were killed in 2022, and 2 cases were reported in the year 2021.
Not just in Assam, several parts of NE India has witnessed cases of animal poaching. In Manipur, a group of poachers had allegedly killed a female deer, which is locally known as kharsha. The hunters gathered the venison off the bones, head and skin and vanished away from the place. High officials of the Manipur government initiated the search operation based on prior information received regarding the matter.
The operation was conducted by Bishnupur district Wildlife Warden, Sovam Ratan Singh under the guidance of Rebika Soibam Chanu, the divisional officer of Bishnupur District Forest Department.
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