(IN) Armed conflict in Kaziranga

[Guest guest]

I should be interviewing DD(Dharanidhar) Boro, Chief Range Officer of

Kaziranga National Park next month for he collaborates with WTI on many

projects. Regarding the armed assault in Kaziranga, it is an extreme

situation calling for extreme measures, specially considering this quote :

'“I am known as the king of this area and I will behave like a king.

Earlier, kings went hunting and I will also hunt animals. Who are these

forest people to complain against me? Are they bigger than me? We don’t kill

animals nowadays, but I think this time I will hunt inside the park to show

them that I am a king,” Independent MLA Jiten Gogoi told a TV channel.'

 

My most cherished wildlife memories are of Kaziranga in 1994. A place of

ethereal beauty where tiny elephant calves roam free inside the jungle with

their captive parents. They also come right upto you and entwine their

trunks around you. The very best review of the poaching situation in

Assam has been written by WTI Executive Director Vivek Menon, in his book

'On The Brink'. This is the excerpt :

 

" I met a revolutionary range officer named Bhupen Talukdar in Pobitora. No

officer had done a raid in this manner of Bhupenda before him, but then few

range officers are like Talukdar. Outside, the park was quieter than ever

before, but through the silence filtering in, Bhupenda could hear the

rumblings of discontented villagers and a troublemaker politician.

 

'I have six bullets, three in each gun,' he pointed to his weapons,

'standard forest department issue. I have to explain to the department after

I use up three, so that I get three more. '

 

On his gaunt, bearded face, a betel-stained mouth pouted. His laugh was red

with betel vehemence.

 

'I think they will come tonight. I can get six of them. What do you think?'

 

He is polite enough to ask you what you think. He is rebel enough not to

care about your answer.

 

In ten minutes they were within firing range and the guns of the department

opened up. Three dead, four injured and the horn in the safe custody of the

government. A brilliant retrieval planned and coordinated by men who are

tree growers and park managers. Whose last weapons training was three

decades ago. Who have three bullets in each rusty rifle and for whom

'undercover' had thus far only meant running for cover from poachers'

bullets.

 

'In other parks, ' Talukdar smiled, 'they say only God can protect the

rhinoceros. Here we do the work ourselves.'

(ON THE BRINK, Vivek Menon, Chapter 'The Horn of Sorrow, Penguin Books,

1999.)

 

When I interview Mr Boro, I intend asking him, if he comes face to face in

an armed conflict situation with the likes of Jiten Gogoi when both of them

have similar weapons like AK-47 rifles, if he will be polite enough to ask

his opponents what they think about their status as 'kings'. I will also ask

him if he will be rebel enough not to care about the answer and reply

bullet for bullet.