14 DAY TRIAL // A rhino living in the Kaziranga National Park in India has died after falling into a mud pit and failing to free itself on its own.
Local media reports say that the rhino fell into the pit this past February 26. It spent the entire day stuck in mud, and eventually passed away at about 11 p.m. local time.
People in the area claim that they tried to rescue it, but that they simply could not manage to pull the animal out of the pit.
According to Times of India, they maintain that, had forest department officials intervened, the rhino would probably still be alive.
What's more, they blocked a local highway for about three hours as a means to protest the forest department officials' failure to do their job and save the rhino.
The same source tells us that, in order to make sure poachers hanging about in the area would not profit from this rhino's death, officials decided to remove its horn themselves.
Since the beginning of this year, a total of four rhinos, including this one, have been found dead in the Kaziranga National Park in India.
The other three appear to have been killed by poachers who were looking to collect their horns and sell them on the black market.