News
Rhino poaching kingpin caught in dramatic set-up in KZN January 3, 2015 04:36
Cape Town - A 45-year-old man allegedly involved in the intricate rhino poaching 'epidemic' that has gripped South Africa and left it's rhino populations near extinction, has been caught and arrested in KwaZulu-Natal. The alleged criminal was shot during the arrest and is in a stable condition in hospital.The alleged kingpin's wife, as well as his second-in-command co-worker have also been arrested in a separate incident in Hluhluwe, reports the Sunday Tribune.
Barend Lottering of Nyathi Anti-Poaching Unit told the Tribune that the arrest was made possible by use of a trap called a 'reverse sting', where police agents sell illicit goods to criminals.
The arrest came after an 8-month intelligence-driven operation where police infiltrated the alleged kingpin's inner-circle using informer networks.
Record Year of Rhino Slayings as Africa's Big Animals Targeted January 3, 2015 04:31
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 2 (Reuters) - South Africa lost a record number of rhinos in 2014 as big animals across Africa were relentlessly poached to meet rising demand for horn and ivory in newly affluent Asian countries or to provide meat to fighters in the bush.
From South Sudan, where conservationists say elephants are being slain by both government forces and rebels, to South Africa, where more than three rhinos are poached every day, there is an arc of illegal animal slaughter across the region.
South Africa is the centre of the rhino crisis as it is home to close to 20,000, or over 90 percent, of the world's population of the animals.
Government figures for 2014 show that by mid-November 1,020 of the animals had been killed for their horns.
That tops the previous record of 1,004 from 2013 and experts say it will probably hit at least 1,200, an almost four-fold increase over 2010, when 333 were killed.
Poachers killed in Kaziranga January 3, 2015 04:28
Forest guards killed two poachers in Kaziranga at an encounter on Thursday a day after a home guard and a full grown rhinoceros were killed in Orang national sanctuary.
Thursday’s incident took place in the Bagori Range area of the National Park in the wee hours.
Officials told Assam Times that the gun fight erupted when forest guards were searching a group of five poachers who were looking for rhino to strike. Two died on the spot. But three others were believed to have escaped.