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The pride of Kaziranga National Park, the one-horned rhino, is under threat from poachers. Lack of well-equipped manpower, insurgency and a flourishing world trade in animal parts threaten the disappearing rhino, reports Bijay Sankar Bora from Guwahati
A UNESCO World Heritage site, the sprawling Kaziranga National Park, located on the south bank of River Brahmaputra, has been under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. A biodiversity hotspot, it is the largest habitat of the endangered one-horned Asiatic rhinoceros. There has been a steep rise in rhino-poaching incidents in the 859-sq km park. A well-coordinated network of poachers is virtually laying siege to the famous habitat, thereby making a mockery of the government’s anti-poaching strategy. Till January this year, the park was manned by a force that was crippled by presence of majority ageing staff. The poachers have killed 22 rhinos till date since last year, including four so far this year. The sudden spurt in rhino poaching inside the national park has put under the scanner its "remarkable success story" of conservation of the one-horned Asiatic Rhinoceros. The Assam government found itself in the dock for its failure to protect the endangered animal that is the state animal in Assam. The brutality exhibited by poachers who gouged out the horn of an injured female rhino, besides killing her three-year-old calf on the eastern fringe of the National Park on the night of January 19, was shocking. The poachers first fired upon the female rhino to immobilise her before gouging out the horn. Bleeding profusely, the injured rhino died the next day. The picture of the dying female rhino appearing in newspapers and was beamed across news channels, shook up the people of Assam. The incident sparked off an unprecedented public protest against the government’s apathy. Especially under fire was the forest and wildlife minister Rockybul Hussain. Rise in poaching
Incidents of poaching increased after experienced wildlife officials of Kaziranga Park were transferred out after Hussain took charge of the Forest and Wildlife Department in 2006. This raised serious questions about the minister’s sincerity of intention to protect the rhino in Kaziranga. In the face of public anger over rhino killings, the minister offered to step down to pave the way for a CBI probe into poaching. The alleged involvement of an inter-state gang of poachers was probably aided by insurgents. The minister said, "I admit that there is shortage of frontline staff in the Park to effectively tackle the threat posed by poachers. The staff strength has remained the same though the Park’s area was increased to 859 sq km from the earlier 430 sq km. The effort is now to improve the staff strength and provide better equipment and overhaul the anti-poaching apparatus and infrastructure in Kaziranga in a phased manner." Damage control There were only 437 wildlife staff to man the 859 sq km wildlife habitat. The park is bound by the Brahmaputra on the north and the existence of the arterial and busy National Highway 37 along its southern fringe of the Park has made it vulnerable for poachers.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi constituted a high-powered committee in January this year to find ways and means to tackle poaching. The committee in its report suggested several measures including the induction of youngsters on field duty, arming the wildlife personnel with sophisticated weapons, setting up of an intelligence network in cooperation with fringe area villagers and setting up better coordination with the state police in fighting poachers. "On the recommendation of the high-powered committee, the Assam government has provided us with 100 young armed homeguards and 100 .303 rifles to augment the vigil against poachers. Twenty more Forest Protection Force personnel will join duty in the Kaziranga Park soon. A team of six senior wildlife officials, including a Conservator of Forests, a Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) and four rangers have been deputed to help the officials in Kaziranga as an emergency measure," said Bankim Sharma, Divisional Forest Officer of the park. The official claimed that situation had changed for better during February. It was decided to set up five watch-towers and 25 new guard camps along the NH 37 that runs along the southern fringe of the park. The existing distance between two consecutive camps of wildlife staff inside Kaziranga Park would be reduced to two km to gear up vigil. A mobile squad would be appointed in addition to five new Rapid Action Force units. The DFO informed that intelligence sharing and operation coordination between the state police force and wildlife staff in Kaziranga National Park had improved tremendously under trying circumstances. Police and wildlife officials have arrested 16 wildlife poachers from different parts of the state during February. Track record Fortyeight rhinos, the highest number ever, were killed by poachers in a single year in Kaziranga in 1992. After that the number gradually came down due to improvements in anti-poaching strategy. It came down to single digit (eight) figure in the year 1998, four in 1999, four in 2000, eight in 2001, four in 2002, three in 2003, four in 2004, seven in 2005, five in 2006. But it shot up to 18 in the year 2007. The park is a significant natural habitat for in situ conservation of biological biodiversity of universal values. The wildlife area made an entry to the list of World Heritage Sites in 1985. Today, the one-horned Asiatic rhinoceros is found only in the Kaziranga National Park, Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, and Orang National Park. The entire rhino population in Manas National Park in Western Assam and Laokhowa Reserve Forest in Central Assam were killed from the 1980s to the 1990s by poachers and insurgents. The estimated population of Indian one-horned rhinoceros in Kaziranga Park is 1855 as per the last census carried out in 2006. It was declared a game reserve in 1908 and a National Park in 1974 to save the one-horned rhino. Lucrative trade A single horn of the rhino is worth an exorbitant amount (about $45,000 per kg) in the international underground market of wildlife parts. The rhino horn is much sought after in South Asian and Arabian countries where people believe it to possess "medicinal and aphrodisiac values". According to police and NGOs working in the field of wildlife, including Aaranyak, Rhino Foundation, the rhino poachers are only a part of an international racket involved in the trade of wildlife organs. The poachers are contracted by the racket to kill rhinos and collect the horn that is smuggled out of the country through international borders in the North-eastern states, especially Nagaland and Manipur. The park also has elephants, swamp or wild buffalo, swamp deer, hog deer, barking deer, sambar, Hoolock gibbon, pythons, civet cat, wild boar and tigers. There is a rich variety of fresh water fowls, over 450 species of woodland and grassland birds of which 18 species are globally threatened. Found in abundance are egrets, pond herons, river tern, black-necked storks, pelican, partridges, Bengal florican stork, pied hornbill and fishing eagle.
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