Click to play videoKaziranga, Assam: Five-hundred guards armed with antique guns patrol the 800-sq-km Kaziranga National Park—no wonder then that poachers have killed 10 one-horned rhinos this year, double the number in 2006.
The Assam government has come up with a Special Action Plan but that has helped little on the ground. “We still have.303 and a315 rifles—the equipment is like that,”says Dr Bhaskar Chaudhuri of the Wildlife Trust of India.
Wildlife officials say poachers are armed with telescopic rifles, armour-piercing bullets and a greed for rhino horns. “There is pressure for rhino horns, and it's round the clock, round the year,” says M C Malakar, Chief Conservator of Forests.
The odd consignment of arms and ammunition does make it to the park but in the war against the poachers, it's the allies that could make the difference. Though there is a lot of money coming in to stop poaching what needs to be looked into is what is the government doing for villagers who live along the national park.
“The intelligence network in villages has to be fullproof. You got to know what is happening outside the park,” says Dr Chaudhari.
“We need infrastructure and development activities. If we give them more help, obviously we will get more cooperation from them,” says Malakar.
Kaziranga has 1,800 or around two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhino population—conservationists say saving them will require a lot more guards, guns and planning.
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