Two Asiatic bears, a male and a female, were killed by poachers inside the recently opened Rangapahar Wildlife Sanctuary-cum-Zoological Park in Nagaland earlier this week, a delayed report reaching here said.

The incident occurred just ten days after the formal inauguration of the Park, with officials confirming that the bears were poisoned inside their cages with the poachers cutting open their bodies to remove bile. While the bears were killed on Monday night, the authorities came to know about it only on Tuesday morning. The animals, aged between eight and 12 years, were brought to Rangapahar in June this year from Kohima.

The 176-hectare Park is near Dimapur and located about 80 km away from the state capital of Kohima.