The Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) has expressed strong contention over appointment of Honourary Wild life Wardens (HWlWs) in the State.
It lamented that many persons have been re-appointed third time in a row without assessing past performance of their previous tenures as HWlWs.
The WSO has been insisting that the Government should review the performance before reappointing someone for a further term. An analysis of the age spread of the appointees is bewildering considering the fact that able bodied persons are required for this job.
Among the 37 persons there is a wide age range from 32 years to 80 years. Surprisingly, eight persons have been appointed who are between 60 to 70 years of age and shockingly there are three persons of 70 years or more.
The HWlW for Jharsuguda is aged 80 years and is not fit for regular movement in forests. In April,2018, four elephants were killed by a train in Jharsuguda which could have been avoided if the HWlW had regularly monitored the crossing spot and warned the department. Similarly, we do not expect much contribution from the Jajpur HWlW (70 years) or the Malkangiri HWlW (66 years) old.
The Honorary Wildlife Wardens of Bargarh, Nabarangapur, Kalahandi, Gajapati, Bolangir, Bhadrak and Deogarh earlier held the post either in 2012 or 2016 or had two terms consecutive terms prior to 2018 appointment. There was apparently no review of their past contribution to wildlife conservation. Bargarh, Balangir and Deogarh suffer from high human elephant conflict.
In Bargarh reptile smuggling rackets were exposed by people from outside the district. Nabarangpur has seen a sharp rise in attacks on humans by bears and on several occasions, leopard skins and fresh water turtles have been seized based on tipoffs by private persons. These are areas where the HWlW has tremendous role to monitor such wild animal attacks , collect smuggling information and pass it on to the department.
The HWlWs of Ganjam and Sundargarh are retired forest officers. The WSO has been pointing out the huge conflict of interest by appointment of retired forest officers who apart from the advanced age factor cannot function independently as they were in the department earlier and worked in the same district.
The district-wise allocation of HWlWs is inconsistent and not need based. Rayagada district, which is rich in wildlife, has been left out completely with no HWlW being appointed. Districts like Mayurbhanj, Ganjam and Dhenkanal have got only one HWlW each which is inadequate since these districts have lot of wildlife apart from man-elephant conflict which needs close monitoring and management. Apparently there were not many applications which prevented appointments of 2-3 HWlWs in large districts.
This reflects huge lack of awareness among general public about this honorary post which gives wildlife lovers a wonderful opportunity to contribute to wildlife conservation. We feel that the department never made a sincere effort to inform locals about this post and hence young capable people are not getting an opportunity.
The WSO has also learnt that some genuinely interested persons were reluctant to apply as they have faced non cooperation from the department in the past and some DFOs considered their honest efforts to control wildlife crime and timber smuggling as interference. In some forest divisions, old and incapable people have been appointed to ensure wrongdoings are not exposed.
There are many active VSS groups who save forests and wildlife in their areas without any payment from the Government. However, not a single VSS leader has been appointed which reflects that the department did not make a serious effort to recruit genuine and interested wildlife lovers as Honourary Wildlife Wardens, said WSO secretary Biswajit Mohanty.