Assam Government bows down to pressure for rhino poaching investigation

May 2008. The government of Assam has bowed down to growing public outrage. Following intense public pressure, the provincial government of Northeast India announced that the Central Bureau of Investigation will conduct an investigation into rhino poaching in the state.

Civil societies and advocacy groups of the region had rigorously raised voices against the slaughtering of more than 30 rhinos in Assam since January 2007.  

The last week of April witnessed the poaching of two more rhinos in Kaziranga. The forest guards discovered the bodies of the rhinos, with the horns already removed, and the body of the one, a calf, had been half eaten by a tiger.  

Kaziranga shelters 65% of the world’s Asian rhinos

Recognized as a safe heaven for the rhinos, Kaziranga gives shelter to almost two-thirds of the total population of one-horned rhinos on Earth. A 1984 census showed that Kaziranga, which was declared a National Park in 1974, had 1,080 rhinos. The census in 1999 showed the number of rhinos soared to 1,552. The last census in 2006 revealed the number of rhinos in the park at 1,855.

Forest department selling rhino horns.

It is also claimed that the forest department of Assam was itself involved with the illegal trade of rhino horns. There is information that Assam forest department had sold more than 300 rhino horns even after India adopted the wildlife protection act in 1972. We can give the relevant statistics of the sold rhino horns in details as 29 (during 1971-72), 13 (1972-73), 19 (1973-74), 40 (1974-75), 18 (1975-76), 27 (1976-78), 42 (1977-78), 63 (1978-79), 63 (1978-79), 61 (1979-80).

Image courtesy of the Wildlife Trust of India

It is thought that a large percentage of the wildlife parts which are being sold in international markets have come from the forest department's stock, probably  due to corrupt practices of some dishonest forest officials. So conservationists are calling for a probe (preferably by Central Bureau of Investigation) on the stock of animal parts in the custody of Assam forest department, as it is assumed that many of the precious parts of rhinos, elephants, tigers and leopards that had appeared on international markets came from the official stock of the department.

In India, poaching is a punishable offence with up to seven years' imprisonment. India has been a member to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species since 1976 and hence, in principle at least, is bound by all its efforts to eliminate International trade in wildlife and wildlife parts, he added.

The concern for the rhinos was also expressed by a group of non-resident Assamese (Indian), who joined the chorus to save the rhinos. The Friends of Assam & Seven Sisters (FASS), in a recent statement, supported the demand for a credible and high level enquiry into the ongoing killings of the precious animals.