Even as five animals are felled by poachers in a span of a few weeks, forest officials in Assam are positive that the Rhinoceros Unicornis population can be saved!
If there can be anything that can, even momentarily, diminish the
anguish that can be caused by an image of a dying rhino, its horn hacked off, it is perhaps the reassuring words of a man called MC Malakar, the chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Assam. Hounded by the public and Press alike, he has decided to go on the offensive. “What makes you even think that the gene pool of rhinos in Assam may be unsafe?” he shoots back, even before one can finish a question on whether the rhino is safe, given the department’s efforts to take it to the 3,000 mark by the year 2020, as stated in the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 plan. The tirade continues: “At a meeting recently, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) demanded that I agree that we had failed in protecting the rhino. Why should I? Hasn’t the population of rhinos gone to over 2,000 at Kaziranga from a few dozens at the turn of the 19th century?”
According to an analogy that Malakar provides, “It is like trying to keep out all the mosquitoes using a mosquito net. No matter how hard you try, one or two will get in. It is simply not possible for us to put one guard behind every rhino there is in the state”. In terms of the threat to the Rhinoceros Unicornis, the “one or two”, incidentally, translates to a swarm of well-armed, well trained poachers who have brought down over 26 of these pachyderms over the past 17 months alone in Assam.
And that, as expected, has people worried. “There are no rhinos in the Manas and Laokhowa sanctuaries,” says Saumyadeep Dutta, who heads Nature’s Beacon, which first sounded the alarm regarding the killing of rhinos in Kaziranga in 2007. “Then, of course, there are some NGOs,” says Dutta “that have interests with the forest department and thus keep supporting them.”
Malakar, though, refutes such allegations. “We are reintroducing rhinos in Manas after making sure there is adequate public involvement so that there are no security issues,” says Malakar. “As you know, the entire rhino population there was wiped out during the Bodo agitation of the ‘80s and ‘90s.” As for the Indian Rhino Vision (IRV), things are so far going as planned, he says: four female rhinos from Kaziranga and two males from the Pobitora sanctuary near Guwahati (both of which are now overpopulated with rhinos) have been released at Manas over the past few months. “I don’t think there is a problem of inbreeding among rhinos; however, this should help save the gene pool at the two sanctuaries,” says Malakar. Once Manas gets back its population of rhinos (the target for the relocation exercise is 30 to 40 animals), the plan would be to target the Laokhowa sanctuary near Nagaon which too is considered an original rhino habitat which was emptied of its animals. And the officials are banking on the fact that they have a surplus in both Kaziranga and Pobitora: apart from the 2,000 at the world heritage site, Pobitora has more than 90 individuals in a space of 16 sq km. As for the principle, it’s simple: spread them out to their original habitats and make it more difficult for poachers to get to them. Despite the poaching, the officials insist, poachers haven’t been able to keep pace. One only hopes the vision is a success. For the rhino, and us.
If there can be anything that can, even momentarily, diminish the
anguish that can be caused by an image of a dying rhino, its horn hacked off, it is perhaps the reassuring words of a man called MC Malakar, the chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Assam. Hounded by the public and Press alike, he has decided to go on the offensive. “What makes you even think that the gene pool of rhinos in Assam may be unsafe?” he shoots back, even before one can finish a question on whether the rhino is safe, given the department’s efforts to take it to the 3,000 mark by the year 2020, as stated in the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 plan. The tirade continues: “At a meeting recently, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) demanded that I agree that we had failed in protecting the rhino. Why should I? Hasn’t the population of rhinos gone to over 2,000 at Kaziranga from a few dozens at the turn of the 19th century?”According to an analogy that Malakar provides, “It is like trying to keep out all the mosquitoes using a mosquito net. No matter how hard you try, one or two will get in. It is simply not possible for us to put one guard behind every rhino there is in the state”. In terms of the threat to the Rhinoceros Unicornis, the “one or two”, incidentally, translates to a swarm of well-armed, well trained poachers who have brought down over 26 of these pachyderms over the past 17 months alone in Assam.
And that, as expected, has people worried. “There are no rhinos in the Manas and Laokhowa sanctuaries,” says Saumyadeep Dutta, who heads Nature’s Beacon, which first sounded the alarm regarding the killing of rhinos in Kaziranga in 2007. “Then, of course, there are some NGOs,” says Dutta “that have interests with the forest department and thus keep supporting them.”
Malakar, though, refutes such allegations. “We are reintroducing rhinos in Manas after making sure there is adequate public involvement so that there are no security issues,” says Malakar. “As you know, the entire rhino population there was wiped out during the Bodo agitation of the ‘80s and ‘90s.” As for the Indian Rhino Vision (IRV), things are so far going as planned, he says: four female rhinos from Kaziranga and two males from the Pobitora sanctuary near Guwahati (both of which are now overpopulated with rhinos) have been released at Manas over the past few months. “I don’t think there is a problem of inbreeding among rhinos; however, this should help save the gene pool at the two sanctuaries,” says Malakar. Once Manas gets back its population of rhinos (the target for the relocation exercise is 30 to 40 animals), the plan would be to target the Laokhowa sanctuary near Nagaon which too is considered an original rhino habitat which was emptied of its animals. And the officials are banking on the fact that they have a surplus in both Kaziranga and Pobitora: apart from the 2,000 at the world heritage site, Pobitora has more than 90 individuals in a space of 16 sq km. As for the principle, it’s simple: spread them out to their original habitats and make it more difficult for poachers to get to them. Despite the poaching, the officials insist, poachers haven’t been able to keep pace. One only hopes the vision is a success. For the rhino, and us.
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