NDTV: Rhino poaching linked to poor security

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Link: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070008833

 

Rhino poaching linked to poor security

 

Kishalay Bhattacharjee

Sunday, April 15, 2007 (Kaziranga Park)

Lack of security has been blamed as poachers kill six one-horned

rhinos at Kaziranga wildlife conservation park.

 

Not many guards want to be posted there because it is not lucarative.

 

Since 1989 Kaziranga has not recruited new guards and the few guards

who are there are lovers of wildlife.

 

" One of the dangers of Kaziranga is the shifting river. Another threat

we perceive is the lack of staff posted in Kaziranga NP - it is 110

staff less. The government has to take this up immediately to save

species like rhinos, " the secretary of Aranyak Wildlife Research and

Conservation Bibhab Talukdar says.

 

Talukdar spent all his life away from his family without incentives of

promotions. What makes it worse is the area the guards have to cover.

 

The distance between camps is at least three kilometers. Some

stretches have to be covered on ferries and some on elephant back.

 

During monsoons large areas are flooded making the poachers job easier.

 

" Just two, three people. How will they man such a large area. It will

take just five minutes or 10 minutes for poachers to do their job, "

says D Boro, a ranger at Kohora Range in Kaziranga.

 

Conservation efforts in the past increased the number of rhinos to

1855, but with security deteriorating they are not safe now.

 

Poachers

 

At least 15 gangs of poachers are active in the area. Their main

target is the rhino. But elephants, bear, tigers and others are

vulnerable too.

 

" Once the population increases beyond 2000, the rhinos will move out

of the NP and poachers will get active in killing those straying

rhinos, " says Talukdar.

 

" For that reason we need to set up more camps outside the park but the

government has failed to send staff " .

 

Since 1974 more than 700 poachers have been arrested in Kaziranga but

of these only one was convicted.

 

The police have no database of suspected poachers and the government

has little will.

 

For instance, recently two tranquliser guns were seized from poachers

- one of them belongs of the Chief Wildlife Warden of Nagaland, but

the case has not been followed.

 

" The role of enforcement agencies in nabbing wildlife criminals is

very negligible and not successfull, " Talukdar says.

 

" Police needs to play a very pro-active role outside the protected

area at the same time the forest authorities need to strengthen its

intelligence network " .

 

Perhaps the rhino loses out to the tiger in terms of glamour but in

the international market its price is as high as that of the tiger.