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It
may be vital for many to save the endangered rhinos in Assam,
but for a section of media persons in Northeast India, it has
seemingly become more important to safeguard the state's forest
minister. While wildlife lovers around the globe rail against
the authority of Kaziranga National Park for its failure to
protect the one horned rhino, a section of journalists in
Guwahati continue manufacturing stories glorifying the
initiative of the state forest minister. These journalists,
representing national and inter-national news agencies, tried
their best to project a different picture where the minister has
been praised lavishly for his immediate actions against poachers
in Kaziranga. But those stories really missed out on the public
fury, the local media's concern and sustained voices of wildlife
activists against the ongoing poaching in the park, which
recently celebrated hundred years of success in preserving the
precious inmates.
Kaziranga
lost 20 rhinos during 2007 to poachers and it is an all time
high in the last decade. The New Year began with more sad news.
Within the fifth week of 2008, four rhinos fell prey to poachers
in the same park, which was long identified as a safe haven for
rhinos.
A
census in 1984 showed that Kaziranga, which was declared a
National Park had 1,080 rhinos, in 1974. The number increased 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 to be as
high as 1,855 in the park. Amazingly, Kaziranga provides shelter
to almost two thirds of the total population of one horned
rhinos on the planet.
The
park normally loses 10 to 15 rhinos annually from natural causes
and poaching. Rhinos live an average of 40 years, and in the
last 10 years, 705 rhinos have died. Only 71 of them were lost
to poachers (the rest died natural deaths). In fact, the
poaching of rhinos has come down in the last few years.
Statistics reveal that altogether only five rhinos were killed
during 2006. The previous year (2005) witnessed the slaughtering
of seven rhinos. During 2004, four rhinos became victims of
poaching. It was again less in 2003, where poachers killed only
three rhinos, four in 2002, eight in 2001, four in 2000, and
four in 1999.
Called
black ivory, the rhino horn is prized as an aphrodisiac and a
cure for many ills in traditional oriental medicine, selling for
thousands of dollars per kilogram. A single horn can fetch as
much as $40,000. Rising incomes across Asia mean that demand for
powdered rhino horn is on the increase. And sophisticated
poachers are ranging further and further to fetch it although
there is scant scientific evidence that powdered rhino horn has
any medicinal or sexual value.
But
veterinarians say that is nonsense. It is nothing but
superstition. The horns are nothing but compact masses of
agglutinated hair and rhinos use them for defense against other
animals. There is no scientific analysis that the rhino horn
powder could stimulate human sex, said a Guwahati based animal
physician.
Even
so, the rhinos are still being slaughtered for their horns. The
poachers use various methods to kill the giant animal. The
easiest way remains shooting it with guns (many times fitted
with a silencer). There are reports that the poachers often use
telescopic rifles that can fire bullets from a long distance.
Sometimes, the poachers come inside the park during the night (Kaziranga
has no fencing or walls on the boundary) and dig a hole on the
path, which rhinos often use. One very interesting aspect of the
rhinos' habit is that the animal defecates at a particular place
continuously for many days. The poachers first identify the path
littered with the heap of dung and plan accordingly. In some
instances, high-tension electric lines are also used to kill the
giant animal.
The
park director Suren Buragohain argues, "The poachers are
equipped with sophisticated weapons. But our forest guards lack
proper arms to counter them." "The park," he
says, "badly needs more guards with modern arms and
ammunition." Incidentally, Buragohain earns brickbats from
wildlife lovers as his tenure witnessed the rapid increase in
rhino poaching in Kaziranga. Statistics reveal that during his
term (still to cross 12 months) as the director, Kaziranga lost
the highest number of rhinos in a decade.
As
the director was clueless to the grave threats to the rhino in
Kaziranga, the state's forest minister revealed an equally
insensitive and callous approach to the issue. All the time, the
young minister in Tarun Gogoi's cabinet, preferred to ignore the
matter. It finally compelled the All Assam Students' Union (AASU),
an influential students' organisation in the Northeast, to come
to the streets. AASU activists staged demonstrations on February
2 in front of the forest offices in all parts of Assam to
protest against the authority's failure in protecting the
rhinos. The AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya went on demanding
the immediate resignation of Rockybul Hussain as the forest
minister of Assam "for failing to take adequate steps to
stop this heinous crime against a national treasure."
Earlier,
conscious citizens, political party members and media editorials
expressed deep anguish against the continued slaughtering of
rhinos in Assam in the last few months. Newspaper readers and
television viewers had a shocking experience in January, when
they were exposed to horrible visuals of a wounded rhino at
Kaziranga. The mother rhino had already lost her calf. Probably
she tried in vain to save her calf, which was killed by poachers
for its horn. Then it was her turn to fall victim in a more
tragic way. The poachers cut her horn, when she was alive and
took it away. For the next two days the rhino fought death with
her severe wounds on her mouth and finally succumbed to her
injuries.
February 2008
The
author is a Guwahati based journalist and the editor of Natun Somoy.
He can be reached at
avathakuria@gmail.com
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