The death Knell

With six rhinos killed in the past four months at the Kaziranga National Park, it might be time to worry again

Till last year, the Kaziranga National Park had reason to be proud. The number of rhinoceroses were increasing and poaching had declined phenomenally. In fact, as Assam’s Forest and Environment Minister Rockybul Hussain recently claimed in the Assembly, the number of rhinos killed by poachers hadn’t reached double figure since 1998. Now it might be time to worry again. As many as six rhinos have been poached in less than four months, and at this rate, the World Heritage site could be short of 18 rhinos by year-end.

“Our men have been doing their best despite the staff shortage,” says Mohan Chandra Malakar, Assam’s Chief Wildlife Warden and Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife).

While the number of rhinos has been rising at an astonishing pace, the park is facing severe manpower shortage. Seven or eight years ago, when the park was spread over 430 sq km, it had a sanctioned staff strength of 487. Today, when the park area has more than doubled at over 1,000 sq km after six new portions were added, the team strength has reduced to 376.

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Worse, most of the frontline staff members are now old and sick. “More than 80 per cent of the forest guards are on the verge of retirement and several are ill, but there has been no fresh recruitment for over two decades,” says an official on condition of anonymity.

“We don’t know why the government has still not woken up to the problem,” says Bibhab Talukdar, an eminent conservationist whose NGO, Aaranyak, has earned worldwide fame. “We have raised the issue at every available opportunity, the last time at the State Wildlife Board meeting. Though Hussain assured that 50 people would be despatched to Kaziranga immediately, nothing has happened even after a month.”

But who are the poachers and how do they operate? D.D. Boro, a highly decorated forester and a ranger in Kaziranga, has the answers. International gangs with links to China and Middle-East operate by engaging poor villagers in the park’s vicinity. “In July 2004, we tracked a gang to Phuntsholling in Bhutan and found it had links to China. Groups also operate from neighbouring states like Nagaland and smuggle out horns through Manipur and Myanmar to Southeast Asian countries,” says Boro, who has killed 37 poachers and captured over 100 since he joined the park in 1987.

“We have tried to motivate the villagers to inform us about the poachers, but people fall prey to easy money. One kilogram of rhino horns sells at US $50,000 in the international market. While anti-poaching measures have improved over the years, most poachers wriggle out due to the legal loopholes,” says Talukdar.

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So while the police have arrested over 700 poachers (most of them caught by the Kaziranga forest guards) since 1975, only one has been convicted so far. Last month, Hussain provided a list of 86 poachers who had been arrested, but most of them are out on bail as the Forest Department has been unable to access good lawyers or provide evidence. “You can’t expect a forest guard or ranger to be on duty 24 hours a day, running from police stations to courts to fight the cases,” says Talukdar.

Despite the problems, Hussain believes that the recent steps taken by his department will bring down poaching. “The department has engaged informers for intelligence gathering, increased vigil, acquired modern radio equipment, held awareness campaigns in fringe villages and built better infrastructure, including watch towers and roads,” he says.
But as of now Kaziranga continues to hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.