FOR the one-horned rhinos at Kaziranga National Park in Assam, it's time to run for the hills and National Highway 37. Every monsoon, the waters of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries flood the 430 sq km park, home to the largest concentration of one-horned rhinos in the world. And its animals are forced to seek shelter on the adjacent high land.
But danger lurks here too. As the animals move towards the open high lands—the highway and the hills of Karbi Anglong beyond it—they become easy prey for poachers. And speeding vehicles on the highway would knock down small animals like deer and scare away the rhinos.
The forest authorities are on red alert. And the state government has clamped down Section 144 of the Cr PC—which, among other measures, prevents the assembly of more than four persons in a public place—in the vicinity of the park since early June. This is despite the fact that the park closes for tourists between May 1 and October 31 every year.
"By clamping Section 144, we get the power to regulate the traffic on the vital stretch on the NH 37 so that neither the vehicles nor the animals face problems from each other," says Bishan Singh Bonal, Kaziranga's field director. He should know.
As the custodian of the park, Bonal faces his toughest task during the monsoons. "This is the time when we have to be extra vigilant," says Bonal's right hand man, forest ranger D. Boro who looks after Kohora, one of the park's four ranges.
Following the havoc floods had wrought in the last decade, forest authorities have constructed dykes and high land within the park to enable the animals to remain inside the park boundary even when the Brahmaputra floods. But these aren't enough to cater to all the animals in the park.
This year, three-fourths of the park was engulfed by the first wave of floods. "Fortunately, the waters rose gradually, allowing the animals time to react and move towards higher land," says Bonal. However, a rhino calf was caught in swirling waters and drowned. The flood waters also damage roads and bridges. Water hyacinth, which floats in with the surging waters, stick at the bottom of the wooden bridge pillars. With time, the bridges become weak and get washed away with the force of the flood waters. So, park authorities enlist elephants to clean the river beds.
NOT everything about the floods in the park is negative. According to Bonal, floods also revitalise water bodies inside the park, enable fresh breeding of the fish and provide drinking water sources in the non-monsoon period. If the water level rises slowly, the rhinos and water buffaloes (Kaziranga is home to 60 per cent population of the world's Asiatic water buffaloes) enjoy wallowing in water. But when the levels rise swiftly, it's a different matter.
ByJune 10, this year, the waters had risen alarmingly, forcing the animals to move towards the higher, drier grounds. Expectedly, the poachers were lying in wait. As were the forest guards. Two poachers armed with sophisticated guns entered the park, hoping to catch the fleeing rhinos unawares. As soon as word reached the forest staff, via Bonal's informers, about the movement of the poachers, a quick operation was launched to nab the killers. By nightfall, the guards had caught up with the marauders. In the ensuing encounter, one of them was killed—according to Bonal, 57 poachers had been killed in encounters in the last eight years.
Three days later, another body was found, some distance away. Two down, probably many more to go. But the monsoon has just begun and there are at least four more months of heavy rains left. And the pouring rains and rising river waters heighten the intensity of a task that essentially carries on all through the year.
"It's true that the menace of poaching increases in direct proportion to the rising waters inside the park, but during the dry season when the tall grass has vanished, it is easier for the poacher to target the rhino. So our task is all year round, 24 hours a day," explains Bonal. The job of guarding the national park and the rhinos is tedious as well as hazardous. Recently, ranger Boro got a call from a nearby village at 1.30 am. "They (the villagers) sighted some people moving suspiciously inside the forest in the dead of night. They wanted us to check it out. It turned out to be a false alarm, but we could not have taken a chance," says Boro. The chase lasted nearly 10 hours.
Spread over a vast stretch of flat but often swampy land, the park needs constant patrolling. Often the vigil is on foot, at other times departmental elephants are used to reach inaccessible areas. But in the rains the elephants risk being bogged down in marshy land. Country boats are then used to navigate the water-logged plains.The department has recently been provided with speed boats equipped with eight and 16-horsepower engines—but these are seldom used, as funds for fuel are limited.
The resource crunch in the Kaziranga National Park began in 1992-93 when the Centre shifted the responsibility of funding the Rhino Conservation Scheme to the state governments. The park survived only with donations from environmental groups and NGOs. UK-based groups, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Care for Wild pooled resources to provide three speed boats, and the US Fish and Wildlife Foundation donated three Maruti Gypsies. The EIA has also provided uniforms to the 400-odd staff for the past three years. The WWF Tiger Conservation Programme funded an information network, provided a mini-truck and wireless sets. Technical assistance is expected from UNESCO. Local NGOs like Rhino Foundation provide boots for the staff and veterinary college doctors conduct immunisation for cattle in surrounding villages.
However, the recurring expenses remain a problem. Money to buy rations for staff and elephants, batteries for torch lights and fuel for the vehicles and speed boats is perpetually in short supply. Fortunately, the Central government may once again take on the task of meeting the funds requirement for rhino conservation.
The park requires extra personnel to monitor flood levels, form temporary patrol squads to keep a vigil on the 25 km stretch of NH 37 and set up temporary camps along the highway as soon as flood waters fill the park. Thanks to such measures only 12 rhinos were killed by poachers last year—in contrast to an average 30 killings a year between 1985 to 1995. And despite poachers, Kaziranga boasts 1,200 one-horned rhinos, the world's largest concentration.
However, as one kg of the rhino horn—with its indeterminate aphrodisiac qualities—fetches Rs 10 lakh in international markets, poachers are one species unlikely to go extinct very soon.
