‘For those who have never seen the rhino in its natural habitat, the first sight of this pachyderm is ecstatically uplifting’ The one-horned rhino that has put Assam on the world map is gasping for life in the Kaziranga National Park (KNP). A recent lead article in a news magazine from the Northeast titled, “Poaching is my business, business is good,” is a horrible indictment of the nonchalance exhibited by the government of Assam to a mammoth crisis.
The quote has unfortunately not been
attributed to any single poacher but it can be assumed that those are
the words of a paid sharpshooter. Although there is no definite
scientific proof that the keratin inside the rhino horn is an
aphrodisiac or that it can heal high blood pressure and fevers
(according to the Chinese), the superstition that the person using it
would derive aphrodisiacal powers has driven the poaching perverts
crazy since there is big money out there in the international markets
for the rhino horn.
While many in Assam are quick to point
accusing fingers at the sundry militant groups in state such as Ulfa,
the Karbi and Dimasa outfits for being involved in this nefarious
activity, others feel that poaching on such a scale is not possible
without collusion from within the system. Why would poachers have a
field day inside the sanctuary day after day and the entire system not
budge an inch?
After the latest rhino killing incident,
the CBI will be stepping in to unearth the real reasons for this
largescale poaching of rhinos inside the KNP. This park is perhaps one
of the most frequented by national and international wildlife lovers.
A CBI inquiry is important to set at
rest allegations flying thick and fast that there is a huge nexus within
the system itself and that people in positions of authority are in
league with the poachers.
In March this year, I happened to visit
the KNP with a few students of journalism from the Journalism Mentor
Foundation, Mumbai. For those who have never seen the rhino in its
natural habitat, the first sight of this animal is ecstatically
uplifting.
The other wild animals around the park
seem a shade uninteresting, except if a tiger were to be sighted. This
is because the KNP is known as the sanctuary of the one-horned rhino.
And that is what most people come here to see! If you wanted to see
tigers, deer and other fauna there are other sanctuaries across this
country. But the one-horned rhino is our pride and joy. Yet this poor
animal is being hounded because of human greed, and those in charge of
safeguarding their lives such as the forest minister of Assam and the
entire department of environment and forest seem ill-equipped to deal
with this crisis.
Callousness
I also wonder why the plethora of wildlife
protection NGOs, like Aaranyak and Nature’s Beckon have not demanded
that forest minister Rakibul Hussain step down. Surely there is a system
of accountability somewhere and that should begin at the highest level!
Someone has to pay for this repeated onslaught on the one-horned rhino
(17 killed between January and April 18 this year) Alas! No one has
lost his job so far! What does this suggest?
I recall a wildlife NGO putting up on
Facebook the picture of a dead rhino with its face bloodied after the
murderers made off with its horn in the most brutal manner by sawing it
off the animal’s face. This picture created an uproar across the
universe. But hunters always seem to get away lightly even when
arrested. No wonder poaching is not just a sport but a money-spinning
business for many. In this regard one must appreciate the keepers of
the Orang wildlife sanctuary who have not allowed a single rhino to be
poached this year.
This raises some fundamental questions
about the vigilance adopted in the two wildlife sanctuaries. What is
Orang doing differently that KNP is not? When one enters the KNP, the
forest guard posted at the entrance sits on his chair reading the daily
newspapers, quite oblivious of who comes or who goes. We captured this
picture on our cameras because we found it strange that a guard would
not even put up a posture of being up and about his work.
The image that one carries back is that
of a slothful worker with no passion for his work. He is only doing a
job and there may be many like him in the park!
While one would not like to pass
judgement on the entire wildlife protection framework on the basis of
this solitary person’s attitude to his work, this is perhaps an
indication of how the system functions. Coming back to the Orang Park it
was heartening to read that four poaching attempts were foiled by the
park authorities and one poacher was killed by forest guards. Both parks
are close to Dimapur — the commercial hub of Nagaland and the bazaar
for illegal trade in wildlife parts. Firearms are aplenty in Nagaland
and Nagas are traditional hunters. Many are paid big money by the
poaching mafia to hunt the rhino for its horn which is smuggled across
the Indo-Myanmar international border via Moreh in Manipur.
A challenge
A hunter who was commissioned to kill a
rhino but was arrested told the media that a kilogram of rhino horn
fetches Rs 30 to 35 lakh in Dimapur. He said the price increases several
times over in the international market. There are several websites that
speak about the dangers posed to rhinos even in South Africa and how
the international wildlife protecting agencies are trying to tackle this
more cohesively.
But as long as the demand for the rhino
horn remains, protecting this poor animal is going to be a monumental
challenge. Apart from being used as a traditional Asian aphrodisiac, the
rhino horn is also used for dagger handles in Yemen and Oman.
Interestingly, the rhino horn is now used as the party drug of choice
among rich Vietnamese kids and is said to be more expensive than
cocaine. They apparently grind the rhino horn into powder and mix it
with water or wine. One Vietnamese news website described rhino horn
wine as “the alcoholic drink of millionaires”.
The latest news that the government has
asked for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to track down poachers and
that this proposal is awaiting the nod of the defence ministry should
bring a ray of hope to the poor rhinos. Recently, the National Tiger
Conservation Authority, the Assam forest department, the Wildlife
Institute of India and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) International
(Switzerland), had conducted four-day trials of UAVs over the KNP.
Before this the government had also created the Assam Forest Protection
Force (AFPF) which is armed with automatic weapons to deal with
poachers.
It is true that all this while the
forest guards were not well armed or well paid. If some of them were
carrying out their duties with a passion it was out of love for their
work. Unfortunately there are not too many with that same zest to save
the rhino.
Many succumb to bribes and collude with
the poachers. There is need to incentivise those who guard our
threatened wildlife species.
(The writer can be contacted at patricia17@rediffmail.com)
0 comments:
Post a Comment