From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Local people and organisations are crying foul against unrelenting episode of agitation resorted to by various political, non-politial and conservation organisations in Kaziranga National Park area in Assam, the abode on one-horned rhinoceros and the most popular tourist destination in the Northeast India.
The life in Kaziranga National Park area has been virtually crippled for the last several days because of the unrelenting agitation programmes organised by various organisations which are protesting recent spurt in killing of flood-affected rhinos by poachers in and around the Park under the nose of forest department personnel.
As the agitations have become the order of the day in Kaziranga Park area with so many political, non-political organisations and green brigades jostling for the space in the media that has focused on the rhino killing.
Local people who are mostly dependent of the tourism activities in Kaziranga Park for their livelihood, have become wary of adverse impact such agitations may have on tourists flow to the Park.
Several local organisations and market committees including Kohora Market Committee have called upon all the agitating organisations to do away with more agitation programmes in Kaziranga Park area against rhino poaching so that the livelihood of the local people is not affected.
These local organisations have appealed to the agitators to opt for discussion with the concerned authorities to find a way out to ensure foolproof protection of rhino population in Kaziranga Park instead of only hitting the street in protest.
A source in Kaziranga Park area informed that most of the people living near Kaziranga Park are fully dependent on tourism activities like running home stay facilities, jeep safari and selling local products etc. to the tourists.
The current spell of agitation has already had an adverse impact of business in the area as the episode has projected Kaziranga in a poor light.
In another rhino incident in Rangia, arrangements for the country’s first airlifting of a rhino is on with the pachyderm, which had strayed away from its habitat in Pabitora Sanctuary, being guided to a safe place by elephants for tranquilisation before being put into an IAF helicopter.
Inclement weather had prevented the translocation for the past few days of the animal, which was stranded in the sandbars of Brahamputra river at Sualkuchi in Kamrup district on September 29.
It was spotted on Sunday 20 km away in Uporhali Baghmari beel (waterbody) at Palasbari by locals who reported it to the authorities, district deputy commissioner S K Roy told PTI.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Suresh Chand said the animal was under stress as it had been washed away from its habitat by the strong currents of the Brahmaputra.
“But now it has had food and its health is satisfactory,” he said, adding that it would be the first in the history of wildlife conservation in the country that a rhino would be airlifted.
Roy said the animal has to be transported within an hour of being tranquilised as there was a danger of heart failure after being hit by a tranquiliser gun.
The IAF chopper had been requisitioned from Bagdogra, while specially trained Air Force and forest personnel have been engaged in the airlifting using a special crane and mesh, he said.
Forest guards, veterinary doctors from the Guwahati state zoo and security forces are at the site for smooth conduct of the airlifting process, the DC added. (With inputs from PTI)