indian rhino (photo credit: gnozef)
One of the few remaining sanctuaries for the Asian one-horned rhino is in the midst of a staffing crisis as rangers and park staff have not been paid for up to 5 months. Now 25 of the 68 home guards present at the sanctuary have refused to return to duty.
The Orang Sanctuary in Lower Assam, India – also known as the Rajiv Gandhi National Park – is home to the Great Indian One-horned Rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis). There are thought to be only about 3,000 left in the wild and 2,000 of them are found in the Assam region.
Rhinos of Orang Wildlife Sanctuary threatened by poaching.
The Orang Sanctuary is believed to have 68 individual rhinos after successful conservation since 1972 when only 35 were recorded. However the numbers of rhino did hit a high of 97 in 1991 when poaching became a major problem. This was countered with more active patrols and numbers started to grow again from a recent low of 48.
It’s not just the home guard rangers who have not been paid recently. 49 casual workers who are employed on anti-poaching tasks have not been paid for the last 5 months. The total forest ranger compliment of the park is 200 personnel and local media report that none of the regular compliment of wardens have received their money. It’s claimed that morale among the rangers is at a near time low.
Wildlife rangers go unpaid at Indian national park.
With unpaid rangers and others refusing to return to duty the inevitable has happened and poaching is on the increase. Local investigators have discovered a newly formed poaching gang operating in the park. Poachers from the Lahorighat and Moirabari are now operating in the park.
The park is also subject to poaching gangs coming in from the neighbouring Nagaland province with regular armed conflicts between forest rangers and poachers. In the last 2 years 49 people have been arrested for poaching in the park and 8 poachers killed.
The treatment of park staff is in stark contrast to the staff and resources made available to more high profile national parks such as the Kaziranga National Park, Pabitora game sanctuary and Manas tiger reserve.
Orang Wildlife Sanctuary home to rhinos and royal bengal tigers.
The Orang Wildlife Sanctuary is an important wildlife area on the banks of the Brahmaputra River and is home to many species including Royal Bengal tigers (it’s estimated to have a population of 19) and elephants. It is also home to the critically endangered pygmy hog. It was first declared a protected wildlife area in 1915. It was declared a national park in 1999.
The park covers over 30 square miles and is made up of predominately floodplains from a number from a number of rivers that run through it. With it’s vast natural and man-made wetland habitats the park boasts over 222 recorded species of birds and 7 species of turtles and tortoises.
International partners work with park but rangers still don’t get paid.
The reason for the non-payment of staff is not because the park is being ignored – there’s a lot of agencies working with the park authorities including WWF India, International Rhino Foundation, World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Basal Zoo of Switzerland as well as state and national governments of India. Quite why the park management and board have failed to pay their wages is not really known.
If you want to tackle poaching and protect endangered animals then one of the first things that you need is a well motivated rangers force that gets paid – it far more effective than any number of remote camera traps and geo-tagging or satellite tagging projects in protecting animals.
External sites:
ZeeNews.com: Orang Wildlife Park.
