Wildlife Recall

ONCE IN THE GRIP OF ARMED INSURGENCY, A NATIONAL PARK HAS LESSONS IN WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

- Ishan Kukreti

FORTY-SIX-year-old Buddeswar Bodo is a resident of Baska district, Assam. He has seen conflict in his area during the Bodoland insurgency in the 1980s, which ended after the signing of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Accord in February 2003. He survived this period with one arm, after he was attacked by a wild boar while hunting. He claims to have hunted down 16 elephants, six tigers, five rhinos and multiple bears, boars and ungulates with his homemade muzzle loader rifle. “The easiest to kill were the rhinos and the most difficult ones were the bear and the wild boar,” he says. Buddeswar was a poacher active in the jungles of the Manas National Park (MNP), which falls under the Manas Tiger Reserve (MTR). But today, he is one among many poachers who have renounced hunting to protect wildlife. He works as a forest guard at MNP.

Buddeswar is also a member of Manas Maozigendri Ecotourism Society (MMES), a community conservation organisation active in the eastern side of MNP. MMES has 50 field staff, most of them former poachers. MMES was formed in December 2003 by local youth with an aim to conserve biodiversity through community participation in ecotourism. The society runs ecotourism camps and recently started a weaving centre. The revenue goes back to the community through development projects.

In 2004, MMES started employing poachers as volunteers with the BTC forest department to use their knowhow about the area and animals for conservation. “They helped forest officials with anti-poaching activities, undertaking patrolling of the area. This not only increased the surveillance, but also provided additional personnel to protect the area,” says Partho Pratim Das, tourism advisor to BTC. “Volunteers were given a monthly stipend. Initially it was ₹3,000, but now has been increased to ₹6,000. At present, there are around 400 volunteers protecting the MNP.”