Guwahati: At the time when Manas National Park (MNP) in western Assam is facing a difficult situation, there is a reason to cheer as a special case — Sunil Sarkar, a game watcher of the Park has been awarded the prestigious Hem Chand Mahindra Wildlife Foundation & Saevus Wildlife Warriors Awards 2013.
The awards were presented at a glittering function attended by several dignitaries at Ranthambore National Park. Sunil Sarkar was presented the Special Jury PAN-INDIA AWARD.
Conditions on Manas National Park areas which have been under siege of insurgency on and off, require the field staff to work under great risk braving adversities like threat from insurgents and poachers having links with insurgents.
These areas are can be considered under special category (in fact in the MEE report of tiger reserve, areas which were besieged by insurgency were given special consideration) with recent (and ongoing) armed insurgency. A part of Manas National Park is still inaccessible where insurgency-related killings and kidnappings were still routine.
The Park was under siege of insurgents through the late 1980s and the 1990s. All the parks’ rhinos were wiped out, elephants tigers and other wildlife slaughtered ruthlessly, forest posts were burnt, foresters were killed, and department elephants, shot, burnt, killed.
The insurgency saw the destruction of 28 camps and beats besides two range offices, the killing of half-a-dozen staff of various ranks including a Ranger, and several domestic elephants, looting of arms and ammunition, destruction of infrastructure including roads bridges, etc. There are many deserving staff in Manas who have served there through these terrible years, and tried to protect its fast decimating wildlife. Manas Park has recovered, but continues to be very vulnerable to poaching, persisting insurgency and in such conditions.
In such a scenario, recognition of the staff will go a long way in boosting their morale, and motivating them.
Sunil Sarkar- Game watcher is one such front line staff game who has served in Manas over 30 years. He is a classic case of old school forest management, when semi-literate young boys showing signs of courage were picked up by government officials to work in remote forest locations.
Sunil as a young lad had impressed the then Park Director when he swam the 22 km length of Beki river from Mathanguri to Bansbari! He was a small time hunter, but was motivated to join as a watcher and serve wildlife, both by the Park Director and the then ranger Srikantha Sharma.
He was enrolled as a Game Watcher in 1986. And since then has been an asset to the park.
Sunil has since then served in difficult areas such as Kapurpora, Sidajhar, Rabang and now Bura burijhar camps of Bansbari Range. He may not know how to use a mobile phone, but clearly remembers his lessons of using salt as a tool for wildlife management.
Today, visitors throng his dilapidated camp which is the hub of wild elephants, gaur and other mega herbivores.
He is reticent about the days of insurgency, but he has served in various chowkis (posts) trying to protect wildlife—sometimes standing lone guard over his turf. The wildlife-elephants, sambar,—which he recalls used to gather around the chowki–perhaps they felt safer there.
They used to give them salt from their rations, (and it was never sufficient, he says!). For months, he would have no communication with his family-that was the fate of most of the staff there-as communication systems had failed. Once the chowki he was in along with two other colleagues was burnt, but they somehow managed to escape.
He has faced insurgents-seen colleagues and park elephants being killed during his tenure.
And when they tried to tackle poachers, timber smugglers –they faced their ire, who retaliated by burning and destroying down chowkis and forest camps.