Beware the not-so-hidden charges! Photographer's camouflaged camera is struck by angry rhino

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If you ever came this close to a rampaging rhino it is unlikely you would live to tell the tale.

But fortunately wildlife photographer Dhritiman Mukherjee was not behind the camera when the one-horned rhino smashed into it without any provocation at the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, India.

He was using a remote trigger to take the shots from the heavily camouflaged camera after trying to get close to the animals for almost 14 days.

'After some initial disappointment, I finally got a rhinoceros close enough to the camera. But then, it came charging in,' he said.

'Despite the fact that I was using heavy camouflaging around the camera, the rhino came charging towards the camera without any provocation, undoubtedly seeing it as a threat.

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A raging rhinoceros charged at a camouflaged long-lens camera at the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, north-eastern India

Fortunately wildlife photographer Dhritiman Mukherjee was not behind the camera when the one-horned rhino smashed into it

'I was using a trigger to click the rhinos. Had I been ducking there near the camera, the results would have been disastrous.'

The forcefulness of the impact meant that Mr Mukherjee had little hope of finding his camera in one piece - but amazingly it survived the encounter.

'As the rhino attacked the camera, it went flying in the air. I found the camera covered in mud, but to my utter surprise, it was intact,' Mr Mukherjee said.

'I had a feeling that the camera would be gone. But, it was working fine even after the bulldozing effect of the rhino's charge.'

Illegal rhinoceros horn poaching is one of the major environmental issues in the park, with animal body parts such as the toenails and skin having a high value on the Asian medicinal market.

The Indian rhinoceros, also known as the one-horned rhino, is listed as a vulnerable species as the number of one-horned rhinos has dropped drastically in recent years.

Now there are believed to be less than 2,500 left and last year at least 14 rhinos were killed in the area near the park due to poaching.

He was using a remote trigger to take the shots from the heavily camouflaged camera after trying to get close to the animals for almost 14 days

The rhino came charging towards the camera without any provocation, undoubtedly seeing it as a threat, but lens remained intact 

Illegal rhinoceros horn poaching is one of the major environmental issues in the park, with animal body parts having a high value 

One-horned rhinos can be found across the entire northern part of India, along the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra River basins, from Pakistan to the Indian-Burmese border.

They are also known to have lived in Myanmar, southern China and Indochina.

The rhinos have a thick grey-brown skin with pinkish skin folds and a black horn. Its upper legs and shoulders are covered in wart-like bumps and they have has very little body hair.

Among terrestrial land mammals native to Asia, the Indian rhinoceros is second in size only to the Asian elephant.

It is also the second-largest living rhinoceros, behind only the white rhinoceros with males growing to 12.5ft in length and females growing to 11.2ft in length.

The largest sized specimens range up to 4,000kg.

One-horned rhinos can be found across the entire northern part of India, along the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra River basins

These rhinos are listed as a vulnerable species as the number of one-horned rhinos has dropped drastically in recent years due to poaching