Guwahati: At least 42 people have been arrested and multiple cross-border poaching networks dismantled under Assam’s anti-poaching drive, ‘Operation Falcon’, launched last year to curb rhino killings, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday.
Sharing a video on X detailing the operation’s achievements, Sarma said poachers have been relentlessly tracked using both ground-level surveillance and digital intelligence.
“#OperationFalcon – breaking the back of poaching and illegal animal trade,” he posted.
The initiative, jointly carried out by the Assam Police and the state forest department, was rolled out in 2024 after the killing of two rhinos prompted a shift in anti-poaching strategy.
According to the video, the crackdown has so far exposed an inter-state and international nexus, with six major rhino poaching gangs linked to illegal wildlife trade through Myanmar. Nine poaching attempts have been foiled since the operation began.
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The arrests include 18 in Biswanath, eight in Darrang, six in Nagaon, five in Karbi Anglong, two in Sonitpur, and one each in Udalguri, Dibrugarh and Cachar districts.
Authorities said the operation will continue until poaching is eliminated from the state.
Assam’s one-horned rhinos remain a prime target for traffickers, who trade their horns on the black market under the false belief that they hold medicinal value, despite scientific evidence disproving the claim.
