Media Pie for Assam Wildlife

"We have no reservation against a CBI enquiry into the matter of increasing cases of rhino poaching in Kaziranga National Park.” - File Photo

by Nava Thakuria

(January 18, Assam- India, Sri Lanka Guardian) The wildlife protection effort in Assam often invites media headlines and many times the media has taken extra pain to enlighten the local people on those issues and even compel the authority to take prompt actions. The months of October and November brought various amazing news relating to elephant conservation effort in the State and it was understood that the forest department, thought tried to be pro-active, failed miserably to deal properly with the initiative.

It was started with the shocking news of deaths to four elephants due to poisoning. The carcasses of the pachyderms were found in different locations in central Assam nearby some tea gardens. It is widely believed that those elephants died because of pesticide used in the gardens.

The incident provoked the Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh to write a letter (dated October 12) to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi asking for a probe to investigate the matter. Finally the State Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain ordered the probe.

Deaths to wild elephants in Assam are not rare in the media. The train track running through the Rani Forest reserve, near Guwahati, makes almost regular news of killing elephants, while the herd falls prey to moving trains always. But neither the Railway nor the Forest authority have taken ever visible attempts to tackle with the issue.

Meanwhile, the death of an elephant calf in the last week of October surprisingly in front of forest officials shocked the wildlife lovers once again. The video footage, beamed by different news channels, showed a group of villagers surrounded the calf and finally the bay elephant died due to injuries. Initially it was understood that the villagers of Gubah in Morigaon district, armed with household sharp utensils, were responsible for the killing of the elephant.

Even the State government asked for a detailed enquiry into the incident and already declared that those found guilty would be punished under the law. Later however found that the incident was reported in the media with distorted facts.
The baby elephant was actually ill and so it was left out from the herd. The local people wanted to catch the baby elephant following the direction of forest officers. The motive was to provide treatment to the calf. But it was reported in such a way that the local villagers of the region turned beats and they have no sympathy or love to wild animals.

“Even some NGOs have made irritating comments against the people of Assam as not being passionate to wildlife, which we strongly condemn. The Assamese people have proved their love and high admiration to wildlife beyond doubts since time immemorial,” said Soumyadeep Datta, an Assam based environment and wildlife activist.

Speaking to this wrier, Mr Dutta, who is the director of Nature's Beckon, also added that they had already started a separate investigation into the incident, outcome of which would be shared with the media.

There was good news as well. The local police in early November could break a racket of elephant smugglers and seized two wild elephants. Following the tip-off from a conservation group Green Heart Nature, the Kokrajhar district police could even arrested five persons involved the illegal business.

The district police chief PK Dutta suspected that nearly 100 wild elephants had already been smuggled out of Assam in the last five years. He also informed the media that the smugglers caught the wild elephants and after taming them, those were transferred as domestic elephants, which are later used for various purposes. “An adult elephant can bring around Rs.30-40 lakh to the group,” added Dutta.

Assam is home to nearly 5,500 wild elephants (the national count is not more than 10,000). The last elephant census in Assam in 2007 shows that the State has around 1,500 tamed elephants. These tamed elephants are either in the possession of State forest department or some local businessman, who nurture the passion as a status symbol.

The media persons and wildlife activists of Assam earlier played an important to stop a hurried attempt by the State forest department to burn down over thousand rhino horns. Initially it was believed to be a historic decision of the State forest department to destroy the stored rhino horns in its custody as a message to the world that rhino horns donot have any aphrodisiac value.

The proper awareness is expected to help the mission to save the endangered one-horn rhinos from the clutches of notorious poachers. But it simply did not work as the environment activists demanded more transparency in the process. The issue came alive in the public consultation in Guwahati on June 11, where the Union minister Jairam Ramesh was also present. Attending the meeting, local environment activists pointed out that without the precaution, some corrupt officials might take the opportunity to replace few real horns with fake items and then smuggle those in to the illegal international market.

The State forest department had earlier made all preparations completed to destroy 1,571 rhino horns lying in the lockers of various treasury offices in Assam. It argued that those horns cannot be sold in the market as India adopted the Wildlife Protection Act in 1972. The State chief wildlife conservator S. Chand confirmed the news adding that they took all precautions regarding the process in respect of wildlife laws of India and also international guidelines.

A single horn, believed to be an aphrodisiac, can fetch over 50 lakhs in the illegal international market. The heavy animal enjoys great sexual power, as its mating time is not less than 45 minutes (quite higher than any other animal). Many people believe that one can achieve the sexual power with the help of rhino horns. They consider the rhino horns as another kind of traditional Viagra.

The horns are also believed to have medicinal values. The traditional Chinese medicine demands rhino horns, which is believed to cure fever and stomach ailments fast. China, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and the Middle East are known to be huge markets for illegal trading of rhino horns.

It may be mentioned that many pressure groups in Assam have been demanding a high level enquiry on rhino poaching and also the originality of horns which are under the possession of the forest department. All Assam Students Union, an active and influential students' body took out various protest programmes on the issue during the last few years. The AASU was followed by Nature's Beckon and Journalists' Forum, Assam to raise voices against the corrupt forest officials.

The activists of these organizations insisted that the Tarun Gogoi led government should go for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe on the stock of wildlife parts in the custody of the forest department as well as about the poaching of rhinos, elephants, tigers and leopards in Assam. They argue that some wildlife organs (like rhino horn, ivory, skin of tiger and leopard) had already made way to the illegal international market from the custody of forest authority itself.

Meanwhile, following the sustained hue and cry among the wild life lovers inside and outside Assam, where the media has also consistently supported the move for the preservation of the rhinos and remained critical against the government agencies, the State authority admitted that they had no objection against any high level probe into the mater.

The State Chief Minister Gogoi publicly declared on May 2, 2008 that his government was asking for a CBI enquiry into the matter. The forest minister in his cabinet Rockybul Hussain also declared, "We have no reservation against a CBI enquiry into the matter of increasing cases of rhino poaching in Kaziranga National Park.”

But till date, no enquiry has been announced. Many environment activists including Soumyadeep Datta suspect that a large share of the wildlife parts, which are being sold in the international markets, made way from the forest department's stock due to the manipulation and corrupt practices of some dishonest forest officials. The reluctance of the forest department as well as the State forest minister to face a high level probe thus prove, this way or that way, that there are really something wrong in the matter.