Kaziranga National Park


According to a census in 2018, 2,413 rhinos graze the grasslands and meadows of Kaziranga National Park, although this population could be even larger, with some animals evading the count in the tall grass. Unquestionably, in straight conservation terms, Kaziranga is a beacon park, with rhino numbers continuing to climb, but beneath this glowing picture lies numerous decisions that reveal the complex ethics surrounding animal conservation and wildlife tourism.
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The war against poaching
As in Africa, Kaziranga’s rhinos are under threat from poaching, with their horns fetching high prices in the markets of Vietnam and China. About 150 rhinos have been killed here since 2006, but in 2013, after the number of rhinos killed by poachers more than doubled to 27, the then park manager instigated a zero tolerance response to poaching, backed by the Indian government. Unauthorised entry to the park was banned and park rangers were gifted extraordinary powers to protect animals; the kind of powers typically only granted to armed soldiers going into a war zone or intervening in civil unrest.
The result was a number of killings, of poachers, but also of local people who may have simply wandered into the park – an easy thing to do since there are no fences or signs to identify boundaries. In 2014, 22 people were shot dead and in 2015, that figure climbed to 23. That’s almost two people a month – more people killed than rhinos poached.
The figures would seem to bear this out. While the park authorities maintain that their rangers are engaged in shoot-outs with poachers, only six park rangers have been killed in the last 20 years, while more than 100 people were shot by park rangers in the same period.
As a direct consequence – and perhaps inevitably – there are cases of local people being shot by accident. One young man went to retrieve the family’s cows that had strayed into the park. Rangers shouted for him to identify himself, but he had learning difficulties which prevented him responding. He was shot dead. A seven-year-old boy was mistakenly shot by rangers, and the wounds to his right calf have left him unable to walk unaided. In this instance, the park paid for medical treatment and offered compensation, but this is rare.
The government has granted the rangers in Kaziranga considerable protection against prosecution if they do shoot and kill anyone in the park. In addition, any local, innocent victims of the rangers typically lack the finance or expertise to bring a prosecution. The rights of local people, whether directly involved in poaching or simply caught in the crossfire, seem not to be of concern to the park authorities, and traditional ways of life, run in peaceful coexistence with the park territory and its wildlife for years, are being eroded.
There’s no question that poaching is the reason some of our best loved species are now desperately endangered. A hardline approach can produce results, but it risks being counter-productive, by alienating the very local people who can provide vital intelligence about the wider poaching operations at work in a region.
In Chitwan and Bardiya National Parks in Nepal, for instance, community outreach has been a huge part of the anti-poaching strategy and the park authorities are eager to minimise any wildlife-human conflict that could jeopardise conservation efforts. Park authorities will capture ‘rogue’ tigers and other animals that are attacking local people or threatening livelihoods through crop predation, as any detrimental wildlife behaviour can alienate local people and cause conservation initiatives to fail.
Kaziranga has adopted an extreme and unnuanced approach to poaching, but it serves to illustrate one of 21st century conservation’s conundrum: how do you square the need to protect endangered species with upholding the rights of people who live in and around national parks?
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India’s national park expansion
This expansion is a clear sign that the Indian government has understood the value to its economy from wildlife tourism, since both Indian and overseas visitors pay good money to stay in the area and enter the park to see its impressive rhinos. The ‘worth more alive than dead’ argument has been well and truly won here, in direct contrast to the UK’s national parks, to which people enjoy free entry but where wildlife has all but disappeared. The combination of economics and conservation, when successfully combined, can drive real change for wildlife.
In Kaziranga though, park expansion comes at a direct cost to local people. Cases of state police using live rounds against villagers protesting the evictions have been recorded and in one incident, two local people were killed. There have also been reports of indiscriminate demolition of local people’s kuthis (temporaray bamboo huts), harassment of local people and loss of cattle, which in turns means loss of livelihood. A great many communities that lie in the path of park expansion are tribal people, who say their traditional way of life is now as endangered as the animals the park is trying to protect.
Elephant safaris in Kaziranga
Taking all this into account, we have decided not to promote elephant safaris in Kaziranga National Park, or any park. You can read more on elephant safaris here. If given the choice, we would recommend opting for a jeep safari. It will benefit the park and its endangered wildlife just as much, without promoting the use of elephants.