Alipurduar: The kingpin of rhino poaching in North Bengal, active since 2014, has been sentenced to seven years of imprisonment by the Jalpaiguri Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Court.
On Wednesday, Rikoch Narjari, also known as Damra in the international wildlife smuggling network, was convicted in a case involving the illegal trade of rhino horns. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on him, with an additional six months of imprisonment in case of default. This is the harshest punishment awarded so far under the amended Wildlife (Protection) Act. According to the Forest department, Narjari was one of the most wanted figures in the rhino poaching network operating across North Bengal and Assam. He was apprehended in March 2024 from Kamrup, Assam, in a joint operation by the Alipurduar District Police and the Jaldapara Forest Division. During custodial interrogation, forest officials recovered a rhino horn buried in the Dalgaon area under the Dalgaon Range of the Jalpaiguri Forest Division. Following this, another case under the Wildlife Protection Act was registered against him at the Jalpaiguri CJM Court for trafficking wildlife body parts.
Parveen Kaswan, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Jaldapara Wildlife Division, said: “Rikoch was the mastermind behind most of the rhino poaching incidents in North Bengal since 2014. His key associate, Lukas Basumatary, was convicted on March 3, 2025, after his arrest in June 2024 for wildlife smuggling. Rikoch himself was earlier convicted in another case involving elephant tusk trafficking by the Alipurduar CJM Court on April 5, 2025.”
Kaswan added that the investigation, led by Investigating Officer Ayan Chakraborty, was meticulous and instrumental in securing the conviction. “With multiple convictions of notorious poachers like Rikoch and his associates, a strong message has been sent against wildlife crime,” he said.