Editorial»
Going, going
MAY 09 -
That conservation issues are not on the top of government priority list right now is understandable. This state of affairs is likely to continue for some time yet. But it’s harder to excuse what looks like willful neglect in protection of one of the country’s enduring symbols: its one-horned rhinos. Conservationists are appalled that the government is all set to free Pemba Lama aka ‘Yakche’, a notorious poacher who has been found guilty of killing 20 rhinos, on bail. In theory, rhino poachers or body part smugglers might get between 5-15 years in jail-term or be fined anywhere between Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 100,000. But as Lama’s case indicates, even the most notorious poachers can, literally, buy their freedom.
There does not seem to be any urgency in preserving this rare animal: poachers have shot dead three rhinos, while injuring another, in last 26 days alone. In the latest killing, they gunned one down at Bhalu Khola inside the Chitwan National Park (CNP) in the early hours of Friday. The level of sophistication they displayed while going about their task was immaculate: they had managed to neatly dislodge the famed horn of the fallen rhino within the 15 minutes it took for park officials to reach the incident site.
From the poachers’ perspective, everything seems to be working in their favour. The carelessness of those who are supposed to look after the safety of these animals is evident from the fact that both of the top two officials responsible for conservation of wildlife in CNP have been on a leave for a week, while precedence dictates that at least one of them be present inside the park at all times.
Killings have gone up even as patrols have increased. CNP officials acknowledge the need to upgrade surveillance techniques to catch poachers in the act. The poachers, in their view, are all too familiar with the existing surveillance methods and can outsmart them with ease.
Innovation in conservation methods can help. In the 18-month period between 2006-08, the special ‘bodyguard teams’ — which employed special techniques to track rhino movements — comprising conservationists from the Zoological Society of London and members of local communities were successful in completely stopping rhino poaching inside the Bardiya National Park. But in due course, the poachers seemed to have found their way around the ‘bodyguards’. There were far too many loopholes in the conservation chain, which allowed them to jump right back into their dirty business of trading in rhino parts. The country’s anti-poaching laws are lax, those deployed to keep the bad guys out from the parks that house rhinos — Chitwan and Bardiya — prone to making some fast bucks, and politicians still on friendly terms with filthy-rich poachers. This bodes ill for the fate of the 400-odd one-horned rhinos of Nepal.
Posted on: 2010-05-10 04:54
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