Missing officer traced to Tripura

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Link:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060519/asp/northeast/story_6240987.asp

 

Missing officer traced to Tripura

- Forester testified against poachers & vanished

A STAFF REPORTER

Guwahati, May 18: A forest range officer who had gone missing after

testifying against poachers in a Mangaldoi court about a fortnight

ago mysteriously surfaced in Tripura, from where an Assam police team

brought him back home today.

 

The police were tight-lipped about how Labanya Ramchiary, in charge

of the Bhuyapara range of Manas National Park, reached Udaipur in

Tripura. It was initially believed that he had been kidnapped, but

nobody claimed responsibility for his disappearance.

 

Manas National Park director Abhijit Rabha reached Mangaldoi this

morning to escort Ramchiary back to his place of posting.

 

But like the police, he declined to say whether the range officer had

been held captive all along.

 

" All that we know is that he went missing 13 days ago and we were

very worried. Now that he is back safe, we are happy and believe it

will perk up all personnel working in the Bhuyapara range and the

rest of the sanctuary. "

 

Ramchiary had been last seen at a court hearing in Mangaldoi on May

5, when he presented evidence against three rhino poachers arrested

from Orang National Park in 2001. He was in Orang before being

transferred to Manas.

 

Photographs of the missing range officer had been published in

several newspapers along with appeals by several organisations to

his " kidnappers " .

 

Aaranyak secretary-general Bibhab Kumar Talukdar said he was relieved

to hear that Ramchiary was back. " This will boost thousands of

frontline staff deployed in the forests of Assam, " he added.

 

A forest official disclosed that a combing operation had been

launched in Orang, too, after Ramchiary went missing. " We launched

the operation in Orang as the court case relates to poaching in the

same wildlife sanctuary. "

 

A team from Unesco and the International Union for Conservation of

Nature had visited Manas last year and certified that conditions,

including security, at the national park had improved in recent

years. However, the 29th World Heritage Committee meeting last year

decided to retain Manas Wildlife Sanctuary in the list of World

Heritage Sites in Danger by citing " some deficiencies " .

 

Manas was included in the World Heritage List in 1985, but relegated

to the category of World Heritage Sites in Danger in 1992 because of

militant activity in and around the sanctuary.