From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: The spurt in rhino poaching around flood-hit Kaziranga Park National (KNP) has raised alarm in the Central government and the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) on Friday rushed a fact-finding team to the World Heritage Site to take stock of the situation, according to an official source.
Union Minister for Environment of Forest Jayanthi Natarajan also cakled up Assam Chief Mknister Tarun Gogoi to know about the situation in flood-hit KNP. An official informed that all the senior wildlife officials of the State also rushed to the Pak on Friday to take stock of the situation even as a public protest against rhino killings blocked traffic on the National Highway 37 near the Park. Various people’s organisations are protesting against the failure of the Forest Department and Kaziranga Park authorities’ failure to protect the flood-hit rhinos that have strayed out of the Park.
Meanwhile, Aaranyak, one of the most prominent conservation groups in the country has expressed its shock and deepest grievance at the recent incidents of poaching of four rhinos around the flood-ravaged Kaziranga National Park in just three days.
‘‘This is a massive setback to the efforts towards conservation and protection of this unique creature that occupies an inherent place in the very heart of Assamese culture,” the NGO said in a statement.
“We strongly feel that the management of the Assam Forest Department has not been up to the task of protecting the rhinos, especially when the Park is reeling under flood fury. This, we feel, can be ascribed to a complete lack of coordination between Assam Forest Department and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous District Council Forest Department, failure of intelligence gathering and appropriate action thereby, a lack of proactive action and commitment on the part of concerned officials of the Department and a complete lack of prior planning to face such natural flooding that occurs on a yearly basis.
“It is unfortunate that the authorities have failed to learn anything from the last wave of flood in June 2012 when as many as three flood- displaced rhinos were poached. Absence of rapport and coordination with the fringe communities has also weakened the Forest Department’s monitoring mechanism over the peripheral areas of the Park.
He demanded that perpetrators of the crime must be punished and responsibility should be fixed within the authority which is responsible for protection of the natural heritage.