Golaghat, Sept 20: On the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, orientation training programme for mahouts and ghasis held on Tuesday at the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve.
Traditional methods-elephant trainer Parbati Barua and Bhupen Talukdar, Deputy Conservator of Forests (Retd.) were the key resource persons in the orientation training programme that was organised with part funding from Wildlife Areas Development and Welfare Trust (WADWT).
The Field Director of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve Dr. Sonali Ghosh, said, “The orientation of the Mahouts and Ghasis was oritented towards tips and advice for feeding, bathing and general observations on elephant’s health”.
Dr. Ghosh further stated, “Elephants in protected areas such as Kaziranga are critical for patrolling in remote and inaccessible areas. They are well trained to cross over difficult terrain. The departmental elephants are respected and treated at par with all other work personnel and hence are also retired from service at the age of sixty (60). Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve currently has sixty eight (68) elephants.”
Later in the evening, with an aim to improve the skills of the forest staff of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve on rhino crime investigation, a training programme on Rhino DNA Indexing System (RhoDIS) was also held. Around 40 forest staff from Eastern Assam Wildlife Division and more than 10 Officers attended in the training programme organised at the Convention Centre in Kohora.
The training was imparted by National lead for Rhino Conservation, WWF-India, Amit Sharma and Associate Coordinator – Animal Health from Brahmaputra Landscape, WWF-India Dr. Khanin Changmai. The training covered the basics of investigation procedures under the RhoDIS India program as per the Standard Operating Procedure approved by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), GoI.
Two sets of crime investigation kits as listed under the RhoDIS India were also handed over to the forest officials of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve. The Field Director of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve Dr. Sonali Ghosh, IFoS briefed – “The RhoDIS India program has been adapted and further improved from the RhoDIS programme developed by the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
This tool in India was introduced in 2014 through a series of workshops organised in Assam by WWF India and the Assam Forest Department by bringing in experts from South Africa. The RhoDIS India program was initiated in 2016 and has been implemented across India since then. The RhoDIS India laboratory for the analysis and creation of the Rhino DNA database is hosted by the Wildlife Institute of India. To date, around twenty (20) rhino crime cases from across India have been analyzed and reports provided which has helped in the legal proceedings of the various crime cases and for the first time for sample collection of rhino crime cases, a special temper-proof sampling kit has been also developed under the program that has been provided for use to the various rhino-bearing states of India.”
Dr. Ghosh further briefed, “Now with the provisioning of the Crime Investigation Kits’ which contains a host of tools including a metal detector and skilling of the manpower it is anticipated that systematic investigation of the rhino crime cases would be possible thereby strengthening the fight against poaching”.
(Contributed)