GUWAHATI: Biodiversity conservation and research Organisation, Aaranyak on Sunday (August 11, 2019) provided a unit of its K9 squad of sniffer dog to Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park and gifted two motorcycles to Darrang district police.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Secretary General of Aaranyak, Dr Bibhab Talukdar who handed over the items to respective police and forest authorities, informed that it was part of Aaranyak’s sustained efforts to boost the continuous endeavours of Assam Police and Assam Forest Department to prevent/check wildlife crimes in the area so as to protect the wildlife species including the one-horned rhino and the endangered Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT) in Orang National Park that spread over about 80 square kilometer areas in Darrang-Sonitpur districts of North Assam (Darrang-Sonitpur district).
The motorcycles have been gifted to Darrang district police at the request of the Superintendent of Police, Amrit Bhuyan for the purpose of augmenting patrolling by police personnel engaged in checking and prevention of wildlife crimes including hunting of animals in the National Park.
“The two-wheelers would be handy for strengthening the networking with the Village Defence Parties which have been instrumental in checking wildlife crimes,” the SP said.
The CEO of Aaranyak, Dr Talukdar in the company of Manas Bhattacharjya, Manager, Legal and Advocacy Division of Aaranyak, also handed over a trained sniffer dog from Aaranyak’s K9 dog squad along with a dog hander to Orang National Park. The sniffer dog was received by Divisional Forest Officer (Wildlife), Ramesh Gogoi in Orang National Park. The sniffer dog is sponsored by David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) which has maintained a long-term association with Aaranyak.
Taking charge of the sniffer dog, the DFO said, “Aaranyak has fulfilled a long-felt need of Orang National Park by providing the sniffer dog that would be of immense value in checking and investigating wildlife crimes especially hunting in the Park.”
It may be mentioned that Aaranyak have already provided three such sniffer dogs to Kaziranga National Park in Assam and one more at Pobitora Wildlife sanctuaries in Kamrup district of Assam. Both Kaziranga Park and Pobitora Wildlife sanctuaries are celebrated habitat of one-horned rhinos on the globe.
Aaranyak last moth provided raincoats, working boots and torchlights to 101 members of various village defence parties active in fringe areas of Orang National Park.
Orang National Park with a core area of over 79 sq.km. is home to 101 one-horned rhinos (2018 figures) and 24 majestic Royal Bengal Tigers besides a treasure trove of avian and aquatic species.