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Protecting the Rhino
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| Assam Tribune , Tuesday, February 06, 2007 |
| Correspondent
: Staff Reporter |
| The steady increase in the rhino population has probably been the most heartening development in the sphere of conservation in the State. Given the status of the rhino as an extremely endangered species and its vulnerability to poaching, the growing rhino population of the State is definitely a saga of success in the face of stiff challenges. The State Forest Department deserves kudos for being able to accord protection to the rhino amidst a challenging environment. The declining trend of poaching of the rhino in the past five-six years is a clear indication of the painstaking efforts of the Forest personnel towards making the rhino habitats a safe shelter for this magnificent animal, one of the very few survivors from the age of the dinosaurs. Poaching had been the biggest threat for the State’s rhino population, thanks to the great demand of the rhino horn in South Asian countries for its supposed medicinal and aphrodisiac attributes, even though medical science has established such notions to be mere superstitions. Not long ago, poaching used to take a heavy toll of the rhino every year, putting a serious question mark over the long-term survival of the animal. The good news is that in recent years all the three rhino-bearing protected areas - Kaziranga National Park, Orang National Park and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary - have recorded a sizeable increase in their rhino populations, with the last census recording a presence of 2,006 rhinos in the State. While this is undoubtedly a triumph of conservation worthy of being replicated elsewhere, what should not be forgotten is that the entire rhino population of two other protected areas, i.e., Manas National Park and Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary, were completely decimated in the 1990s and the mid-1980s respectively
While the rhino population in Asom has thrived, many concerns still remain and need serious attention of the authorities, particularly the Forest Department. The foremost being that over 90 per cent of the rhino population is restricted to Kaziranga and Pobitora. This concentration of such a big number within these two protected areas exposes the rhinos to grave stochastic risks. The Forest Department is going ahead with its plans to translocate rhinos from Kaziranga and Pobitora to other forests, namely Manas, Laokhowa and Dibru-Saikhowa, which is a must under the circumstances. The exercise is critical to maintaining the ecological and sociological carrying capacity of the protected areas for rhinos. The ominous signs of food scarcity, human-animal conflict and in-breeding among the rhinos are already palpable in Pobitora and the situation calls for urgent intervention. However, the ambitious translocation programme is unlikely to succeed unless the security and infrastructure in Manas, Laokhowa and Dibru-Saikhowa are made foolproof. These protected areas are important not just from the point of rhino conservation but also for the fact that they are home to a diverse range of flora and fauna, many of which are endangered and endemic to the State. It is not understood why the State Government has remained a mute spectator to the worsening condition in these pristine forests over the years. A global biodiversity hotspot, the North-east boasts of having a priceless natural heritage in the form of its wildlife — something that cannot be restored once we part with it. Unless this realization sinks in us, it would not be possible to save this great heritage.
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| SOURCE
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Assam Tribune, Tuesday, February 06, 2007 |
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