Rhino poaching soars high in Kaziranga National Park

A red mark in India’s wildlife conservation record with Assam’s Kaziranga National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unicorn (one horn) Asiatic Rhinoceros is facing a grim problem of rhino poaching.

This year only from Jan and till Feb 06, five rhinoceros have been killed by poachers thus far including the latest one in which a young rhino calf was succumbed to the poachers trap mere for horn.

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As per government reports at least 21 rhinos were killed in 2007 in which 14 of them were killed inside the national park. The concerned authorities of the sanctuary every time comes with an excuse of being short-staffed, which questions the entire functionality of the wildlife conservation in India.

The locals instead accuse forest department of helping poachers and not doing enough for villagers who are ready to assist them in protecting this unique population of the one-horned rhinoceroses.

If the forest guards are not well trained or well equipped then why the government is not taking some right measures as Kaziranga instead of inhabiting the largest number of one-horned rhinoceroses is now on the second position as far as illegal wildlife trade in India is concerned. This is a question that the authority needs to answer before the population of rhinos further comes down.

Community Participation

Apart from strengthening forest staff, the government should involve locals to save wild animals. Though villagers in and around Kaziranga are ready to assist forest departments they don’t get enough financial assistance to run their livelihood.

NGOs should come forward to create awareness in conserving wild animals and the ill-effects of poaching. Both state and Central administration must do something for the economic empowerment of the villagers so that the poor villagers would not opt to assist poachers. Again stern action should be taken against the culprits and a good conviction rate can further discourage poachers in haunting wild animals.