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Indian national park gives rangers shoot-to-kill powers in bid to protect endangered rhinoceros

Indian national park gives rangers shoot-to-kill powers in bid to protect endangered rhinoceros
November 25, 2017

A national park in north eastern India is enjoying remarkable success in conserving the population of the endangered Indian one-horned rhinoceros since having been given powers to shoot and kill suspected poachers.

Home to more than 2,400 of the rare species - two-thirds of the entire world population - the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, in India's north east, was set up a century ago when there were just a handful of Indian one-horned rhinoceros left.

Now the rare rhinoceros are thriving in the Park, protected by rangers who have been given the kind of powers to shoot and kill normally only conferred on armed forces policing civil unrest.

The Parks' reputation has seen David Attenborough's team come to film for Planet Earth II while UK royals, William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, visited last year.

The rangers' powers have seen an average of two poachers killed every month - more than 20 people a year - with, in 2015, more people being shot dead by park guards than rhinoceros were killed by poachers.

The protection of the rare rhinoceros results from their horns fetching very high prices in Vietnam and China where it is sold as a miracle cure for everything from cancer to erectile dysfunction. Street vendors charge as much as US$6,000 for 100g - making it considerably more expensive than gold.

While the policy has been criticised, Park Director Dr Satyendra Singh explains that poaching gangs recruit local people to help them get into the park but that the actual 'shooters' - the men who kill the animals - tend to come from neighbouring states.

Dr Singh says the term "shoot-on-sight" does not accurately describe how he orders the park rangers to deal with suspected poachers.

He recently told the BBC "first we warn them - who are you? But if they resort to firing we have to kill them.

"We try to arrest them, so that we get the information, what are the linkages, who are others in the gang?"

Dr Singh says locals have been lured into the trade as rhinoceros horn prices have risen.

Assam, like the rest of India, is densely populated. Many of the communities here are tribal groups that have lived in or alongside the forest for centuries, collecting firewood as well as herbs and other plants from it.

Conservation efforts in India tend to focus on protecting a few emblematic species. The fight to preserve them is stacked high with patriotic sentiment. Rhinoceros and tigers have become potent national symbols.

Add to this the fact that Kaziranga is the region's principal tourist attraction - its 170,000 or more annual visitors generate considerable income - and it is easy to see why the park feels political pressure to tackle its poaching problem head on.

In 2013, when the number of rhinos killed by poachers more than doubled to 27, local politicians demanded action. The then head of the park, MK Yadava, was happy to oblige.

MK Yadava wrote a report which detailed his strategy for tackling poaching in Kaziranga.

He proposed there should be no unauthorised entry whatsoever. Anyone found within the park, he said, "must obey or be killed" and that “kill the unwanted," should be the guiding principle for the rangers.

He explained his belief that environmental crimes, including poaching, are more serious that murder, advising “they erode ... "the very root of existence of all civilizations on this earth silently."

The Park then backed up his tough words with action, putting this uncompromising doctrine into practice. 

Images: An armed ranger stands guard in the Kaziranga National Park (top), tourists in the Park (middle) and a pair of Indian one-horned rhinoceros within the Kaziranga National Park (below).

18th April 2017 - WORLD HERITAGE SITES THREATENED BY CRIME

2nd April 2017 - REPORT HIGHLIGHTS VALUE OF INDIGENOUS RANGER PROGRAMS 

3rd March 2016 - UNITED NATIONS MARKS WORLD WILDLIFE DAY WITH A GLOBAL CALL TO SAVE ENDANGERED SPECIES

22nd April 2015 - WORLD’S PROTECTED NATURAL AREAS RECEIVE EIGHT BILLION VISITS A YEAR

20th November 2014  - IUCN SUMMIT DELIVERS MAJOR COMMITMENTS TO SAVE EARTH’S MOST PRECIOUS NATURAL AREAS

19th November 2014  - CRIMINAL WILDLIFE POACHING DRIVING ENDANGERED SPECIES TO BRINK OF EXTINCTION 

23rd October 2012 - INDIA RESUMES TIGER TOURISM 

6th August 2012 - INDIA’S TOP COURT CLAMPS DOWN ON TIGER TOURISM 


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