Trucks rumbling down NH-39 usually ferry rice and sugar along various points crisscrossing Manipur, Nagaland and Assam. But sometimes they carry deadly cargo on a highway that stretches right up to the Indo-Myanmar border town of Moreh — tiger parts that sell at jaw dropping prices in the Southeast Asian market.
It’s risky business but the returns are too enticing. Just 10 gm of tiger bones sell for $200 in the international underground market. In the North-East , where tigers are known to have been traditionally hunted for meat, poachers can get up to Rs 2 lakh for killing a tiger. Just the skin will fetch you Rs 1.5 lakh.
Decades of insurgency and relatively easy availability of arms has made the situation even more critical in the region. At least 50 insurgent groups operate in these parts and the lure of easy money draws many to tiger poaching. Corrupt government officials and a section of the police force complete the dirty circle.
On June 26, 2006, 30 kg of tiger parts were seized from police officer Dilip Kakoti’s vehicle, says Moloy Baruah of Early Birds, a Guwahati-based wildlife NGO. Kakoti was coming from the Kalamati forest range in Sonitpur when he was intercepted.
Ideally, the mountainous North-East should have been a haven for tigers, the thick and distant forests sheltering the big cats, much like in the Sunderbans, from poachers. As it turns out, it is this remoteness which has made the animals doubly vulnerable.
Less than 120 tigers are left in the wilds of the North-East , but no one can be sure. Officials claim that at least 25 have been poached in the last five years. There’s no telling how many have been trapped, poisoned, shot or butchered to satisfy the hunger for tiger parts in China, Vietnam and southeast Asia.
Though a proper assessment of the tiger population is yet to be done, it is estimated that till recently the Kaziranga national park in Assam had 100 tigers. The Wildlife Institute of India’s 2008 census, however, says that only 70 tigers are left in the 1,164 sq km forests of Assam. Arunachal Pradesh can boast of only 14 tigers and Mizoram six. These figures are hotly contested by conservationists, but everyone agrees tigers aren’t burning bright anymore. Kaziranga, one of the best protected parks in India, lost 12 tigers in the last two years.
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