Suspected armed poachers, who had let loose a reign of terror in the Jim Corbett National Park near Nanital since last week, shot dead a deputy forest ranger and seriously injured three other officials in the area, park officials said on Wednesday.
The incident occurred on Tuesday evening in Birjani area of the park when deputy forest ranger Bipin Chandra Pandey along with two other forest guards was returning after patrolling.
The forest officials saw the poachers in army uniform passing through the area having taken forest guard Dayal Singh Rana as their hostage.
When challenged, the poachers fired indiscriminately on the officials, killing Pandey on the spot.
Two forest guards, Hira Singh Halsi and Janardan Pathak, were seriously injured in the incident and have been admitted to a hospital in Haldwani where their condition is stated to be serious, they said. The incident follows a series of attacks on the officials of the world famous park by armed poachers who had been eluding the police since more than a week now.
More than seven park officials have been injured so far in such attacks.
Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh Police, who launched a combing operation last week, have failed to make any breakthrough. Bureau Report