Probing Wildlife Poaching in Northeast India

By Nava Thakuria

The news was amazing as the Indian Union Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh on June 23 directed a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the seizure of huge amount of wildlife parts (mostly tigers) at Guwahati airport.

The customs officials at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport had seized once again a consignment of 20 kg tiger parts and pangolin scales worth Rs 5 crore on Jun 20, which tempted the central minister to go for the enquiry.

The action was appreciated by various environment NGOs and other organizations. Two NGOs namely Nature's Beckon and Early Birds had issued press statements appreciating the minister's decision, but maintained their demand that the probe should comprise all wildlife including one-horned rhinos.

In fact, many NGOs with All Assam Students' Union and also a journalist's organization of Assam have been demanding a CBI probe into the rhino poaching in the State. They had demonstrated their resentment and anger in public places and following their demands, the State government led by Tarun Gogoi had declared two years back that it was going for a CBI probe. Of course, it has not turned into reality till date.

Journalists' Forum of Assam has also reiterated its demand for CBI probe into rhino issues and recently sent a letter to Ramesh, saying, "While appreciating your timely action, may we also request you to kindly use your good office to initiate a CBI probe on rhino issues by the State government without further delay.”

The media has welcomed the initiative. The Sentinel, a leading English daily of Northeast India, said in an editorial, "We welcome the decision of Union Forest and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh in favour of a CBI investigation into the recent seizure of 20-kg tiger bones and pangolin shells worth Rs 5 crore by Customs officials at the Guwahati airport."

It also added, "One might also be tempted to ask whether politicians, bureaucrats, police officers and well-connected businessmen too are part of the extended family of wildlife smugglers.

It is imperative for the CBI to conduct a thorough probe and unearth the secrecy of the operation and its extent."

Earlier the journalists' forum organized a Citizen's Meet at Guwahati Press Club on June 19, where a number of environment NGOs, journalist organizations and conscious individuals were present. The meeting also resolved demanding a CBI probe into the ongoing rhino poaching in various forest reserves of Assam.

The meeting also demanded a fair test for a bunch of over 1500 rhino horns, which have been readied by the forest department to be disposed off soon. A resolution of the meeting clearly urged for a transparent test of horns, as there are apprehensions that a section of corrupt forest officials had already replaced real items with fake rhino horns.

The State forest department had earlier made a historic decision to burn all the horns under its possession to send out a message that the horns of pre-historic mammals contain no medicinal or aphrodisiac values for which the rhinos are primarily poached.

The department informed the media that it has 1,571 rhino horns lying in the lockers of various treasury offices in Assam. It argued that those horns can not be sold in the market as India adopted the Wildlife Protection Act in 1972. Proper awareness is expected to help the mission to save the one-horn rhinos from the clutches of notorious poachers and smugglers.

Called black ivory, the rhino horn is prized as an aphrodisiac, selling for thousands of dollars per kilogram. A single horn can fetch as much as $40,000.

The heavy animal enjoys great sexual power, as its mating time is not less than 45 minutes (quite higher than any other animal). Many people believe that one can achieve the sexual power with the help of rhino horns. They consider the rhino horns as another kind of traditional Viagra.

Addressing the meeting, Soumyadeep Datta insisted that forensic test must be conducted before burning the horns. He also alleged that all horns were not in treasuries and some of them were under custody of individual forest officer.

"There are strong possibilities that those horns had already been replaced by fake horns. So they want to burn the horns as early as possible to erase all their misdeeds. Hence we have demanded a CBI probe, which will unearth all the anomalies of the department," Datta asserted.

Malay Barua of Early Birds also supported the views. He commented that the State forest department has little credibility among the people of Assam, and hence a CBI probe was very important.

All the speakers supported the demand, though on burning the rhino horns, there were different voices that those horns should be preserved in museums (or any safe places) after conducting the forensic tests. The issue came alive in a recent public consultation in Guwahati on June 11, where the central forest minister Ramesh was also present.

Raising the issue of rhino horns in the meeting, activist Soumyadeep Datta and JFA president Rupam Barua expressed their resentments that the Assam government was not serious about the CBI probe. They also pointed out that without the probe, some corrupt forest officials would continue smuggling rhino horns into the illegal international market.

The AASU activists also staged demonstrations throughout the State on February 2, 2008 protesting against the authority's failure to protect the rhinos in the forest reserves of Assam. They also demanded the resignation of Assam forest minister Rockybul Hussain.

Even a group of non-resident Assamese (Indian) under the banner of Friends of Assam & Seven Sisters supported the demand for a credible and high level enquiry into the issue. But ignoring all the public resentments, the State government continued its silence on the CBI probe. While the chief minister Gogoi, who is otherwise outspoken, continued to avoid the issue of CBI enquiry.