After Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, it is the turn of Assam Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain to publish a white paper on wildlife conservation in Assam.
The Forest Minister, who had drawn ire of the people over the failure to stop poaching of one-horned rhinos in Assam in past few years, on Sunday published a ‘white paper’ and said that the department had been taking several steps to stop the menace of rhino poaching.
Hussain, however, said that poaching is a global phenomenon and that all the countries — where there are rhinos — are facing the menace.
“We have been taking steps to stop the poaching. When our Government came to power in Assam there was lack of manpower in Kaziranga. We have increased the manpower strength to 1,200 inside the park. We have also amended the Wildlife Protection Act so that the jail term of the poachers can be enhanced. We have also empowered the forest personnel to use arms to fight the poachers. Steps like setting up of electronic eye, increase in anti-poaching camps have also been taken,” said the Minister.
It may be mentioned here that the poachers have so far killed 18 rhinos since January this year including 17 in Kaziranga National Park alone. The State had recorded a sudden spate in poaching of rhinos since 2012.
While 22 rhinos have been killed in Assam in 2012 including 11 in Kaziranga alone, a total of 42 rhinos have been poached in Assam last year which included 27 rhinos in Kaziranga National Park.
“However, it is due to the conservation efforts by the Government that the rhino population of the State had also registered a significant increase in the last few years. While we had only 1,672 rhinos in Assam in 1999, the last census of the rhinos indicated more than 2,500 rhinos in the State,” said the Minister.
“It is due to the conservation efforts undertaken by our Government that the species, which was listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), got upgraded to a vulnerable species in 2008,” he said adding that another significant steps taken by the Government for conservation of the animal is the rhino translocation project under the Indian Rhino Vision 2020.
“The Manas National Park, which had lost all its rhino population, now has 31 rhinos. This led the UNESCO to declare the park as UNESCO World Heritage Site from the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Danger,” said the Minister.