(IN) Rhino Killings: The Inside Story

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Rhino Killings: The Inside Story

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main37.asp?filename=Ne090208rhino_killings.asp

 

 

 

Rhino Killings: The Inside Story

A former poacher in Kaziranga reveals why the animal is being increasingly

hunted

TERESA REHMAN

Kaziranga, Assam

 

UB Photos

A RARE SUCCESS story in India’s wildlife conservation record, Assam’s

Kaziranga National Park, home to the one-horned Asiatic Rhinoceros and a UNESCO

World Heritage Site, is struggling to come to grips with a spurt in rhino

killings. Twenty rhinos were poached last year, 14 of them inside the national

park and the rest in areas just outside the sanctuary. The forest department has

come up with the usual excuses of being understaffed and under-equipped, but the

retrenchment of casual workers in the park by the previous Prafulla Kumar

Mahanta regime, leaving scores without livelihood and angry at the government

apathy, has also played its damaging part.

One of those dismissed workers was Golap Patgiri. Employed informally by the

forest department since 10 years, Patgiri’s monthly earnings of Rs 1,500

suddenly ran dry. “We used to do everything, from patrolling to cutting grass.

We assisted the permanent staff in almost everything. I had once caught a

poacher red-handed,” he says. Suddenly jobless, Patgiri found himself under

pressure to join the ranks of the very people he had once battled: the poachers.

GROWING THREAT

 

25 RHINOS

Killed in Assam in the past 13 months, 20 in Kaziranga

 

81 RHINOS

Died of natural causes in the same period

 

$35,000

The price of a rhino horn in the

international market, mainly in China, where it’s considered an aphrodisiac

“All of a sudden we had nothing to do and there was a family to look after. It

was difficult to go back to our village and begin farming. As it is our village

is ravaged by annual floods and the crops are destroyed by stray rhinos and

buffalos,” rues Patgiri. Despite belonging to one of the village’s affluent

families, nobody was ready to engage him even as a daily wage labourer. “People

used to ask us instead if we had a job for them,” he says.

On the fringes of the 900-sq km sanctuary is a small hamlet known as “Shikari

Gaon”. Infamous as a breeding ground of poachers till not long ago, the village

is now home to many surrendered poachers, some of whom work as informers for the

forest department. Patgiri is one such “reformed” outlaw, and besides helping

forest officials with information, he works as an activist for a local NGO named

“Dagrob – Eco-tourism and Eco-development Society”. The Wildlife Trust of India

has promised to help him set up a shop. Dagrob means the “rising sun” and

Patgiri and his fellow villagers are keen to make a new beginning. One of

Dagrob’s main activities is creating awareness against poaching. Another is a

campaign for economic empowerment of women through building a cottage weaving

industry. The NGO North East Social Trust is assisting Dagrob in this endeavour.

Patgiri has one case of poaching still pending against him, and he has to face

the wrath of forest department officials whenever a poaching incident takes

place. In Dhoba Ati Beloguri, Patgiri’s native village, his elder brother

Holiram Patgiri, a former CPI-ML activist, joins us. Pointing to his thatched

house, he laughs, “Can you believe it? We are just about 3 km from Bokakhat

town, yet we have no electricity or water supply. The only saving grace is a

primary school with a single teacher who caters to 115 students.”

How did his village, inhabited by people from the Mishing tribe, come to

acquire the infamous epithet Shikari Gaon? Holiram says that the government used

to grant gun licences to villagers living close to the forest to protect

themselves from wild animals. The villagers were later asked to surrender the

guns when militancy broke out in the region.

MANY OF the villagers had single and double barrel rifles. In fact, owning

land, elephants, buffalo and a gun were status symbols in our villages,” Holiram

says. “Most of our men were ace hunters and hunting a pig or a hare was

considered sacred during the festivals. But the rhino was never our target.”

Holiram says many of the poor villagers were lured into assisting the poachers

who came from Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. “These poachers

came with sophisticated weapons but could not operate without a guide who knew

the ins and outs of the forest,” he says.

There was a time when 15 such local “poachers” had surrendered and the forest

department had promised to pay them Rs 500 per month. Explains wildlife activist

Uttam Saikia, who is also the honorary wildlife warden of Golaghat district,

“But gradually the payment stopped and the officers stopped bothering. There

should be proper rehabilitation packages for the reformed poachers like they

have for the surrendered militants in Assam.”

An angry Holiram says the forest department’s claim of being short-staffed is

a lie. “If they are understaffed, why did they fire those casual workers? Our

boys grew up among the wild animals in the forest. They can be much better

guards. Most of the present guards are so old they can barely hear or see,” he

says.

Wildlife expert Bibabh Talukdar says community participation is imperative for

dealing with poaching. “The government should accord the highest priority to

strengthening intelligence. The illegal wildlife trade in Kaziranga is the

second highest in the country in terms of volume. If for Rs 10,000 the villagers

are helping the poachers the government should pay them Rs 20,000 to help nab

the poachers,” he says.

Talukdar points out that between 1998 and 2006, rhino poaching in Kaziranga

was controlled effectively, with an average loss of only about 4-8 rhinos per

year. Better conservation efforts during these years had led to an increase in

the rhino population from about 1,550 in 1999 to 1,850 in 2006. But the gains

seem to be fast getting eroded given the spate of killings last year.

 

 

Dr. Sashanka

Manging Trustee

JBF(INDIA)

New Delhi - India.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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