Rhino gunned down by poachers less than 24 hours after Wills and Kate visited the same national park
The creature was killed about 20km away from the Diphlu River Lodge where William and Kate stayed last night
POACHERS have shot dead a rhino at an Indian wildlife reserve just HOURS after it was visited by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The tragic discovery was made at the Kaziranga National Park in Assam late last night where it emerged poachers had shot dead a male rhino using high-powered assault rifles.
Forest officials said they heard a burst of fire at about 11.10 pm (IST) on Wednesday - mere hours after the royal couple had driven through the park in an open jeep and stopped to feed baby animals, including a rhino.
In total 88 empty cases fired from AK 47s were found near the adult rhino’s body.
The creature was killed about 20km away from the Diphlu River Lodge where William and Kate stayed last night before leaving for Bhutan this morning.
Poachers killed a female rhino just two days before the royal visit. The horns of both that female and the male killed on the day of the royal visit were hacked off.
Six rhinos have been poached at the sanctuary so far this year - adding to the 20 that were killed in 2015.
The 480-square-kilometer grassland park is home to the world's largest population of rare, one-horned rhinos, as well as other endangered species including swamp deer and the Hoolock gibbon.
All five of the world's rhino species are under constant threat from poachers who seek their horns to sell on the black market.
Demand is particularly high in countries such as China and Vietnam, where people mistakenly believe consuming rhino horns can increase male potency.
Just hours before the brutal killing yesterday, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had enjoyed an Indian safari and fed orphaned baby elephants and rhino.
Armed with large bottles of milk Kate and husband William fed the hungry animals.
And Kate, 34, giggled as the impatient animals bellowed for their food.
William and Kate fed all the animals in turn crouching over the tiniest of the group - a trio of two female elephants and rhino - to make sure they got every drop of milk and also turned their attention to the older ones.
They were fed a milk formula every few hours with added coconut milk as a supplement.
The Duke and Duchess were touring Kaziranga National Park - home to elephants, water buffalo, the endangered swamp deer, tigers, and two-thirds of the world's population of Indian one-horned rhinoceroses.
The pair had enjoyed an early-morning two-hour Jeep safari at 6am from their luxury lodge - where they saw rhino and an elephant family in the wild.
The park in the state of Assam in the north east of India is a unique mix of grasslands, wetlands and forest and is more than 800,000 square kilometres in size and has designated a Unesco World Heritage Site.
William is keen to promote conservation, particularly of the one-horned rhino endemic to Assam, but faces accusations of hypocrisy after he said trophy-hunting was permissible in some circumstances.
Last month he told ITN that if an endangered animal was old or infertile it was acceptable to kill it for cash as long as the fee went back into conservation work.