Guwahati, Aug 20 (IANS): Hours after the carcass of a rhino was recovered at Bhuyanpara range near Rupohi camp of Assam’s Manas National Park, officials claimed that the wild animal had a natural death refuting any chances of any poaching attempt.

Talking to IANS, 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.

Notably, a suspected rhino poacher died in a police encounter recently in Assam’s Chirang district who had been arrested earlier along the Indo-Bhutan border.

Nareswar Basumatary, a poacher, was shot by Assam's Special Task Force (STF), according to the police, as he tried to escape from custody.

The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau in Assam and a team from the Chirang Forest Department conducted an operation close to the border between India and Bhutan based on a top-secret tip concerning the smuggling of rhino bones and other body parts.

In that operation, the authorities found rhino claws, skin, a homemade pistol, and bullets. The police also arrested two other individuals on the charges of poaching.