Poachers on the prowl, Kaziranga not far away

Poachers on the prowl, Kaziranga not far away
TNN, Jan 28, 2011, 02.23pm IST

KAZIRANGA: The soaring demand for tiger parts in the international grey market has left big cats unsafe in their habitats across India. And Kaziranga is no exception.

Despite boasting of having the highest tiger density, Kaziranga cannot ensure that its big cats are safe from the villagers' wrath and poachers' clutches. After all, these poachers are constantly on the hunt for greener pastures to feed the growing demand for tiger organs, especially in China.

Though poaching of one-horned rhinos continues to haunt the Kaziranga National Park management most, conservationists fear that it's a matter of time that the poachers will pounce upon the tigers.

The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau might not have found tiger poaching inside Kaziranga in recent years, but increasing cases of straying out and rising human-tiger conflicts may soon make the big cats extremely vulnerable to the poachers' sinister design.

Sources said tiger poachers and their conduits are active in parts of the northeastern region. For the time being, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau said poachers were looking for tigers in the less-protected jungles of the region where it is easier to hunt big cats than in protected areas like Kaziranga.

If last year's seizures of about 11.100 kg of tiger bones by the Customs department at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati are of any indication, it's not difficult to fathom that largescale trade in tiger parts is going on in the northeast.

A conservative estimate reveals that not less than 25 tigers were poached in the last five years in the region. Conservationists say though the exact figure of tiger poaching is not available, the actual number will be much higher "because many of the tiger poaching cases go either unreported or their carcasses are not detected by the forest department."

In Kaziranga, it's obviously a difficult task for a poacher to lay trap to kill a tiger inside the park as 60 per cent of its area is covered by thick and tall grassland. "Spotting a rhino is easier a task there than spotting a tiger. But this does not mean that that tigers in the park are safe from the poachers. For, they may be waiting outside the park to catch the tigers once the animals stray out," a source said.

Once a tiger stray out and enters into human settlement for preying on livestock, its susceptibility of falling into the poachers traps increases manifold. "Cases of poisoning tigers to death in retaliation of big cat depredation has rather opened up the prospects for the poachers. There have been instances, though in other parts of Assam, of poachers helping livestock owners to poison tigers to death," the source said.

Moloy Baruah of Early Birds, a Guwahati-based wildlife NGO, said, "A police official, Dilip Kakoti, was arrested in June 26, 2006 following the recovery of about 30 kg of tiger parts from his vehicle. The seizure was made while Kakoti was coming from Kamengbari under the Kalamati forest range of Sonitpur. Smuggler Jilani Ali and his accomplices Tul Bahadur Chetry, Peng Dillang and Obanji Singjaji were also apprehended. On August 4, 2006, tiger organs were found at Gopal Nagar in the Hojai area and two persons Hallauddin and Pradip Chouhan were arrested. So it's obvious that the poachers and wildlife smugglers will also target the tigers of Kaziranga."

What worries conservationists is the frequent human-tiger conflicts on the fringes of Kaziranga. "Poachers can exploit such situations easily. Today, people are killing tigers when their cattle are lost in big cat attacks. A day will come when poachers will connive with these villagers. There has to be an adequate protective system. Tiger population has significantly dropped because of inadequate protection," warned Somyadeep Dutta of Nature's Beckon.

Once killed outside a protected area, its very difficult to find its carcass. Ultimately, such carcasses land up in the hands of wildlife crime traders. Most of the instances of poisoning tigers to death take place in the sand islands dotting the Brahmpautra stretching from the northern banks of Kaziranga to the Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary and Orang National Park.

"Rhino poaching in Kaziranga is a genuine problem for us. But there has been no poaching of tigers for trade or hunting elephants for their tusks. In fact, we have been working effectively with multiple agencies to keep wildlife crime in control. A recent seizure of leopard bones from two tea garden labourers was possible because of our constant monitoring," Assam principal chief conservator of forest (Wildlife) Suresh Chand said.

According to the 2010 study by Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), Assam stood second in terms of tiger mortality, next to Madhya Pradesh. Assam lost nine tigers last year, five in Kaziranga alone. "One has to be very cautious about protection of animals, including tigers, in Assam. After all, the state is the gateway for smuggling activities towards southeast Asia. They reach China via Arunachal and Myanmar from Assam through Manipur," said Biswajit Roy Chowdhury of Nature Environment and Wildlife Society.

Link - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...ow/7375223.cms