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| Kathmandu, Wednesday April 09, 2003 Chaitra 26, 2059. |
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Alarming
rise in rhino poaching could undo much vaunted success story
By Surendra Phuyal
KATHMANDU, April 8 : It
may be the time to celebrate, or just relax, for weary conservation officials and field
workers, who teamed up last week to track down, subdue 10 rhinoceroses from the bushes of
the Royal Chitwan National Park and move them to the Royal Bardia National Park. But
here’s a point to ponder: The worrying rise in wildlife poaching could gradually undo
the success story of rhinoceros conservation in Nepal.
The band of highly
experienced conservation officials with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife
Conservation (DNPWC), King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC) and other
organisations yesterday wound up this year’s rhino translocation programme. The
officials have been moving rhinos to Bardia from Chitwan since 1986 in a bid to create an
alternative viable population.
In all, this time they
moved seven female and three male rhinos to Bardia and released them in the Babai valley
there. The valley has been identified as the only suitable habitat in Bardia for the big
mammals that thrive on grasslands or wetlands and riverine forests. With this, the
population of the endangered Asiatic one-horned rhino in Bardia has reached 87, according
to the DNPWC.
But what is
particularly disturbing is the news report last week that park authorities bumped into
four dead bodies of rhinos in the Babai valley. The bodies were without horns-like many
other wildlife parts, rhino horns are used in making traditional Chinese medicines, which
are extremely popular among Chinese communities the world over. Officials say the rhinos
were apparently shot dead by poachers.
Post-emergency
rule—declared in November 2001, there has been a sharp rise in the incidence of
poaching. And the trend is showing no signs of slowing down. Consider this: A total of 48
rhinos have died since the start of the Nepali New Year 2059 in mid-April 2002, according
to the latest update made available by the DNPWC.
Most of them were
killed by poachers, while others were electrocuted by local farmers. A few of them also
died due to natural reasons, such as flooding and tiger attacks. Another compilation,
meanwhile, shows that 37 of the 54 rhinos that died in Chitwan last year were killed for
their horns.
Now consider this: Only
38 rhinos died in a period of 16 years between 1973 and 1990. Rhinos started making a
dramatic rebound during the period, thanks to the establishment of the Chitwan park (The
watershed event also paved the way for establishment of other parks and nature reserves
around the country). At one point in 1966, only 66 were struggling to survive in Chitwan.
According to a count in
2000, altogether 612 rhinos were surviving in the three protected areas of the country. Of
them 530 were surviving in Chitwan, 77 in Bardia, and five in the Shukla Phanta Wildlife
Reserve. Then, the rhino population growth was reckoned at 3.8 percent. And now, what no
less than 50 rhinos are dying each year means is that the mortality rate has climbed to
nearly eight percent.
But what’s causing
all this? Officials at the DNPWC blamed the unstable socio-political situation of the
country for this. "Clearly, this is the result of the fallout of the political
instability of the insurgency," said Basanta Subba, the Information Officer at the
DNPWC. "Look at our history, which is the evidence: Whenever we had a crisis like
this, loggers and poachers have increased their activities."
The argument does not
sound illogical, though. Post-emergency, the Royal Nepal Army, which guarded the
country’s parks and reserves, was deployed for counter-insurgency. "The number
of the army post was reduced, and the incidence of poaching started growing," says
Laxmi Manandhar, another official at the DNPWC and former Chief Warden of Chitwan. Today
only seven of the 42 army posts in Chitwan are manned.
For its part, the DNPWC
is understood to have requested the army to re-man the deserted outposts in and around the
parks, now that the truce is holding. "But the army said ‘We can’t help it
until the domestic situation improves’," said another official at the DNPWC, who
preferred to remain unnamed. "So we are thinking of ways to strengthening our
anti-poaching operations."
In an attempt to check
poaching, measures have also been taken to keep a strict, but secret, vigil on the
movement of poachers. Of the 20 secret anti-poaching operations (APOs) activated in
different parks and reserves across the Terai, seven are said to be working in Chitwan,
while five are based in Bardia.
But given the "sad
ground reality", all the anti-poaching measures seem to have failed.
Renowned wildlife
biologist Dr Prahlad Yonzon of the Resources Himalaya had this to say, when contacted for
comments: "Clearly, the network of intelligence they boast so much has failed,"
he said. "And it’s because the network does not seem to be covert any more. The
secret informants seem to be out in the open and enjoying the popularity."
The intelligence
network, he insisted, should work in the same way the military or the police’s
intelligence networks function. Moreover, the authorities also need to be armed with a
contingency plan to deal with the situation like this, according to him. "Where is
the contingency plan that we need in times like these?"
"The conservation
officials should be able to create a state of terror in the mind of the poachers," he
continued. " They should be able to revamp the network of intelligence, and start
interrogating the key suspects. And suddenly you will realise that poaching has
stopped."
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