By Syed Zarir Hussain, IANS
Kaziranga (Assam) : Tribal separatists in India’s northeast are involved in a flourishing rhino poaching syndicate at the famed Kaziranga National Park in Assam leading to a sudden spurt in incidents of the giant pachyderms being slaughtered for their horn.
“Our reports indicate there is some nexus between poachers and militants and hence we are soon adopting a slew of measures to combat incidents of poaching at Kaziranga,” Assam Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain told IANS.
Three rhinos have been killed so far this year at the 430 sq km park – the latest in a string of brutal poaching of the herbivorous mammals.
“Organized poacher gangs are involved in killing rhinos. Last year 18 rhinos were killed and in January three more animals were shot dead, including a mother and a calf,” park warden Bankim Sarma said.
The growing demand for rhino horns and its barter for arms by militant groups of the northeast is one possible reason. Militants barter rhino horns with the poaching syndicates for purchase of arms.
“Karbi tribal militant groups (from Assam) and the NSCN-IM (Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland) are directly involved in the flourishing rhino poaching racket,” Durlav Saikia, a former poacher now actively helping the park authorities in combating poaching, told IANS.
Saikia and another former poacher, Motka Gogoi, killed at least a dozen rhinos between themselves before they gave up poaching of rhinos a couple of years back.
“The NSCN-IM helped us with sophisticated weapons, including carbines and rifles, to hunt the rhino. In return we got just about Rs.2,000 to Rs.3,000 at the most for shooting a rhino,” Saikia said.
“There are suggestions to take the help of police and even the army in combating poaching, especially to deal with the militants involved in such a racket. We would take stern measures after we get a report from a committee set up to review the situation,” the minister said.
This is the first time in a decade that the number of rhinos killed in a year has touched a double digit figure in the park.
As per latest figures, some 1,855 of the world’s estimated 2,700 such herbivorous beasts lumber around the wilds of Kaziranga – their numbers ironically making the giant mammals a favourite target for poaching.
Between 1980 and 1997, some 550 rhinos were killed by organized poachers in the wilds of Kaziranga – the highest being 48 in 1992.
There was a reduction in the number poached between 1998 and 2006 with just 47 killed – the decrease attributed to intensive protection mechanisms and a better intelligence network, coupled with support from local villagers living on the periphery of the park.
“The demand for rhino has always been there and with the rhino population decreasing in other sanctuaries, especially in Nepal, the pressure is increasing at Kaziranga,” the warden said.
Organized poachers kill rhinos for their horns, which many believe contain aphrodisiac qualities, besides being used as medicines for curing fever, stomach ailments and other diseases in parts of Asia.
Rhino horn is also much fancied by buyers from the Middle East who turn them into handles of ornamental daggers, while elephant ivory tusks are primarily used for making ornaments and decorative items.
Profits in the illegal rhino horn trade are staggering – rhino horn sells for up to Rs.1.5 million ($38,000) per kilogram in the international market after the horns are smuggled to China or sold in other clandestine Asian markets.
Once extracted, the rhino horn is routed to agents in places like Dimapur in Nagaland, Imphal in Manipur and Siliguri in West Bengal.
The route for rhino horn smuggling is an interesting one – a possible route is to Kathmandu via Siliguri and then from Nepal to China and the Middle East. The other possible route is from Imphal to Moreh on the Manipur border with Myanmar and then via Myanmar to like Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and China.