Death trap for rhinoceros in Assam

Nava Thakuria

The authority of Kaziranga National Park (KNP) in Assam of northeast India has repeatedly asked for sufficient manpower with better equipment for preventing poachers from hunting the endangered rhinoceros solely for its prized horns. But wildlife activists argue that it was the incompetent policy of the authority that failed to save the wild animal.
   Two years back, KNP celebrated hundred years of its existence that narrated a colossal success story. The famous habitat of the great Indian one-horned rhinos (rhinoceros unicornis) received international media headlines for its unbelievable achievement in preserving a highly endangered species. Situated in middle Assam the 430 sq km park is today home to more than 1800 one-horned rhinos. It otherwise nurtures around 65 per cent rhinos living on Earth. Besides India, few other Asian countries support the conservation of habitats for all together 2700 one-horned rhinos.
   Located on the southern bank of the mighty river Brahmaputra (which originates in Tibet and crosses India and Bangladesh to finally culminate in the Bay of Bengal), the park enjoys sub-tropical monsoon with average rainfall of 1300 mm and temperature rises to 38° C (in summer) from 8°C in winter. The low-lying areas of the picturesque park are full of swamps and elephant grass that makes KNP as an ideal habitat for the rhinos. Rhinos are vegetarian and a full-grown Indian rhino may weighs up to 2,000kg. They eat mostly grass with leaves, crops and fruits.
   KNP was once again in media, but this time for wrong reasons. The incident of poaching of rhinos in the park went up suddenly. Identified as a safe heaven for the rare species animal, KNP witnessed the killing of 12 rhinos within eight months of the year. It is for the first time that the toll went too high in the last decade. The park normally loses 10/15 rhinos annually because of natural deaths and incidents of poaching. Rhinos live an average of 40 years. In the last 10 years (from 1997 till date), the habitat has lost over 700 rhinos, among them the poachers had killed only 71 rhinos (rest died natural deaths).
   In fact, the poaching of rhinos reduced in the last few years. Statistics reveal that altogether five rhinos were killed last year (2006). The previous year (2005) witnessed the slaughtering of seven rhinos. During 2004, four rhinos become victims of poaching. It was again less in 2003, where poachers killed only three rhinos. The previous years also showed shocking statistics as four in 2002, eight in 2001, four in 2000, four in 1999 and so forth.
   The KNP director Suren Buragohain claimed that poachers with international links were involved with the recent killing of rhinos. "They are equipped with sophisticated weapons. But our forest guards lack the proper arms to counter the poachers," revealed Mr Buragohain. He informed that the park was still in need of required number of guards with superior arms and ammunition.
   "But the arming of frontline staff with sophisticated weapons is not a very simple matter. Several issues like legal and technical feasibility are also required to be considered before taking any decision in this regard," stated an official statement from the office of the Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Assam.
   
   Aphrodisiac
   The rhino horn has great demand in international market as the power of the horn is considered to contain aphrodisiac properties. The large animal's horns have gives vigour, as its mating time is not less than 45 minutes (higher than any other animal). Many people believe that one can achieve similar sexual power with the help of rhino horns. They consider the rhino horns as another kind of Viagra. The horns are also believed to have medicinal values. The traditional Chinese medicine demands rhino horns believed to cure fever and stomach ailments speedily. China, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and the Middle East are known to be a huge market for illegal trading of rhino horns. It costs a several thousand US dollars per kilogram of horn in the international market.
   Experts reveal that five kinds of rhinos are available on Earth. The white rhino and black rhinos live in Africa and both of them have two horns. The other three species, namely Indian rhino, Javan rhino and Sumatran rhino are available in Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Bangladesh. The one-horned rhino has a distinctive tough skin.
   Kaziranga was declared as Reserve Forest in 1908. It received the status of Game Sanctuary in 1916. In 1938, the park was opened for the visitors. Kaziranga was declared as Wild Life Sanctuary in 1950. It was declared as a National Park in 1974. Later in 1985, it was recognized as a world heritage site by the UNESCO.
   A census in 1984 showed that KNP had 1,080 rhinos. The number was found increasing up to 1069 in another census during 1991. The census in 1999 provided more optimistic result as the number of rhinos soared to 1,552. The last census in 2006 revealed the number of rhinos as high as 1,855 in the park.
   In every monsoon, floodwater from the Brahmaputra inundates the park that otherwise helps recharging the water bodies of the park. Some times, most of the areas of the park come under the floodwater during monsoon which compel the animals to wander from low-lying locality to higher places. Many of them try to cross the busy Indian National Highway 37, which touches the southern boundary of the park. It may be mentioned that the highway is the beginning point of the hill range of Karbi Anglong. Hence, whenever there is inundation inside the park, the inmates travel southern to reach the hills. It is time, many animals killed by the speeding vehicles in the highway. Time and again these become victims of human greed. Poachers use various methods to kill the rhinos. The easiest way remained as the shooting by silencer-guns. There are reports that poachers often use telescopic rifles that can fire bullets from a long distance. Even the poachers are understood to take help of modern electric saws to take away the horn swiftly.
   Sometimes, poachers come inside the park at night and dig a hole on the path, which rhinos often use. One very interesting aspect of rhinos' habit is that the animal defecates at a particular place continuously for many days. The poachers first identify the path with the hip of dung and plan accordingly. On fewer occasions, high-tension electric lines are also used to kill the animals.
   The police suspect the poachers enjoy some local help. Even the KNP authority believes that the vital information on the movement of poachers must come from the fringe areas of the park. The villagers living in the surrounding localities of KNP (including the river islands of the Brahmaputra, which are adjacent to the park) are traditionally sympathetic to the animals. But many times, they have to suffer when the wild animals enter their villages and destroy their crops and other properties. Killing of villagers by the wild animals are also reported from time to time.
   "The duty of the authority in that situation would be to deal with the situation cleverly. You must promptly address the growing resentment of the victim families who have been living in the fringe areas of the park," said Soumyadeep Datta, the director of Nature's Beckon, an environmental group of Northeast. Talking to this journalist recently, Datta added, "The forest department officials love to talk about arming guards and finding more funds. But they show little interest in involving the local population to preservation." Datta was not in any way complimentary about the park authorities.
   He had more points to add. "Our member are working in the fringe areas of the park for the last decade. We often organise health camps and anti-poaching awareness campaigns among the poor and neglected villagers. Many of them got wounded by the wild animals (mostely by rhinos, elephants and buffalos), but nobody received compensation from the forest department," revealed Datta.
   The Union government allocates compensation funds for victims' families. Under the 100 percent centrally sponsored scheme 'Project Elephant', the government has propagated guidelines for the grant of ex-gratia for those families, who had suffered human loss and the damage of crops (with other properties) by the wild animals. The schemes specifies various amount of money (from Rs 1,000 to Rs 40,000) as ex-gratia grant for the loss (fully or partly) ranging from dwelling hoses to crops to livestock to the family members.
   Datta and others charge that forest officials siphon the money away. Activists belonging to Nature's Beckon surveyed the areas a few weeks back and surprisingly found that nobody in the locality had received any compensation for the damage of crops and other house-hold properties (by the wild animals) from the State forest department. Facing enormous loss, the angry villagers even demonstrated their furies with agitation programmes agonist the KNP authority and the forest department.
   Speaking to this writer at Kaziranga, Sunil Das complained that the villagers belonging to Shildubi village had never received any compensation from the forest department. The village headman also alleged that the wild animals (buffalo and elephant) often destroyed their crops, but the authority always put a deaf ear to their grievances.
   "You cannot save rhinos (or any other wild animals) by equipping advanced weapons to guards alone. People living in the locality must be involved in the process. But if they feel neglected and cheated by the forest officials, why would they come forward?" raised the vital question by Mr Datta.
   Of course, the State forest department termed the allegation of siphoning (of government fund) is baseless. "It is a fact that the fund allocated for the payment of ex gratia against animal depredations is far too less than the actual requirement for meeting the demand. Everyone knows that the government expenditures are absolutely transparent and can be incurred only after observing strict rules and procedures, which can be scrutinised or investigated at any time by any authority of the government, over and above the regular and normal audit by the Account General (of India)," stated in the statement signed by A.S. Laskar, an officer belonged to Assam's forest department.
   Besides KNP, originally there were three other protected sites for rhinos in Assam. Those include Orang National Park, Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary and Manas National Park. Today, Orang has nearly 68 rhinos, with another 80-odd surviving in Pabitora. But the rhino populations in Laokhowa and Manas have been wiped out. Locals have refused to give authorities information on the poachers because of the mismanagement, critics say.
   A forest official opined, "The intelligence network in the fringe villages must be foolproof. We should be aware of what is happening inside a park or a sanctuary, but at the same time, we must know what is going on out side the area too." He acknowledged that local communities often turn hostile to the authority as the wild animals repeatedly pose a serious threat to their livestock, crops and houses.

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WB provides $75m emergency
flood assistance

Holiday Desk

The 2007 floods have led to significant social and economic losses in the country. A World Bank press release says, affecting 39 of the country's 64 districts, the 2007 floods have led to (a) loss of more than 600 lives, health problems due to an outbreak of diarrhea and other water-borne diseases; (b) lack of safe water supply, flooding of latrines and the attendant spread of pathogens in flood water; (c) loss of housing, livelihood and displacement of millions of individuals; (d) infrastructure damage that includes roads and embankments; (e) major crop damages, particular to the standing aman and vegetable crops; and (f) major damage to small scale manufacturing, particularly the handloom in Sirajgonj and Pabna districts.
   Responding to the floods, the Caretaker Government has launched a major relief, restoration and rehabilitation effort and is getting support from all quarters of society. At the moment its focus is on immediate relief and rehabilitation needs of flood victims in areas where flood water has started to recede. Tackling supply constraints and the associated price rises, the government is importing rice and wheat. It has set up several more "fair price" shops-operated by Bangladesh Rifles-to keep prices affordable to the poor, especially during the upcoming Ramadan month. Moreover, it has also announced direct cash transfer to individuals whose houses have been damaged by floods.
   As is to be expected, the government's relief effort is putting a strain on its fiscal year 2008 budget. Expenditures earmarked for development activities are being redirected for flood relief.
   The World Bank has been regularly monitoring the flood situation and conferring with the government and other development partners to respond in this hour of need. It has put forward a two-pronged financial assistance strategy to contribute to the country's flood relief effort. The strategy has the following two elements:
   * Budget Support: A quick-disbursing US$ 75 million budget support operation to reduce (a) the pressure on the government budget that is arising out of non-programmed flood-related spending; and (b) any unforeseen pressure on the foreign exchange reserves that may be arising as a result of emergency imports, particularly those related to food. Among other things, these resources will restore a part of the regular budget of several line ministries that is currently being used for flood-related relief, restoration and rehabilitation activities.
   * Restoration and Rehabilitation: In consultation with the government and other development partners, a list of medium- to long-term restoration and rehabilitation activities associated with the floods will be prepared. Based on the responses of other development partners, these activities will then be financed. Possible areas of support include agriculture, health, education, communications, and water and sanitation. This part of the strategy will be based on post-flood damage and needs assessment that is expected to be completed by the CTG sometime in September. The project amount will be decided in consultation with the government.

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