Save the Rhinos(e): One-horn or No horn

Save the Rhinos(e): One-horn or No horn

The Government of Assam is apparently weighing the pros and cons of de-horning the rhinos. In this regard, an advertisement appeared in The Assam Tribune, Guwahati dated Wednesday, 19th March, 2014 from the office of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests [Wildlife], Forest Department, Government of Assam. The advertisement invited opinion of all citizens of Assam on trimming of horns of translocated rhinos and those that strays out of rhino bearing areas from the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in Assam.

The Great Indian one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros Unicornis) of Assam is the pride of the state for which many foreign and domestic tourists visit Assam, the horn being its real and prized speciality. It is ‘a remarkable cultural heritage to the people of Assam’. The horn of a rhino is not just a mere body part but a vital and integral one having some symbolic connotation.

Wildlife experts claim that de-horning jeopardizes a rhino's own safety and dignity. De-horned mothers may not be able to protect her calves from predators. Trimming of rhino horns is unethical, aesthetically disfiguring, grotesque and an act of desecrating the animal. Moreover, there is no guarantee that poachers will not target the rhinos even with trimmed horns as the horn grows rapidly. Chances of death may also occur if the horn is cut too close to the germinal layer, as happened to a rhino in Majuli after its horn was surgically removed by forest authorities in March, 2013.

Assam has witnessed the loss of over 20 and 40 rhinos to poachers in 2012 and 2013 respectively. In the current year six rhinos have already fallen prey to poachers in February, with the number adding to two more in March. Poaching is an organized criminal activity (more on the evil side) which promises very high and fast returns (the shortest route from rags to riches overnight) albeit involving minuscule risk to the poacher.

The fact that militants have taken to poaching of rhino horns has been proved with the recovery of bullets of AK series rifles from the killing fields. The poorly equipped forest guards manning the parks are of no match to such armed militants. The Assam Forest Protection Force must be trained as done in the Indian defence wings like the Army in order to combat with the insurgents since the Indian defence establishments have the state-of-the-art-techniques to combat terrorism and the necessary training, infrastructure, discipline, etc. to grasp the nettle. Poachers from even neighbouring Nagaland and Manipur have a close nexus with dealers who smuggle illegal wildlife body parts across the border.

The rhino is targeted mainly for its horns because in many Asian countries particularly in south-east Asia mainly China and in the middle-east, it is believed to have some medicinal properties including its use as an aphrodisiac. Hence, the weeding out of the illegal trade- rhino poaching or any wildlife body parts must be not only at the grass-root level involving local community participation from the fringe villages of national parks but must be addressed at an international dais at a broader spectrum as well.

In the western hemisphere, Prince Charles, a long-term wildlife conservation campaigner, along with his son Prince William have made an appeal in the UK for an end to illegal trade of ivory and rhino horn and called on the international community  to ensure protection of Indian wildlife.

Newspapers have been reporting on and off about the late release of funds by the Finance Department meant for wildlife conservation. (Mr Gogoi Senior, are you reading? It won’t burn a hole in your pocket/ exchequer). Even salaries of frontline staff working round the clock from the forest camps to keep poachers at bay, is delayed at times. This is a major impeding factor for the ground staff often ebbing their morale and motivation and eroding their dedication to work.

Even if the poacher is caught, the loophole in the law plus the absence of stringent punishment does not act as a deterrent for the ‘poor’ poacher (soon-to -be -‘rich’). Ground reality (as flashed in TV news) is when a poacher is apprehended the entire village from where the poacher hails, gherao the forest officials. And when a rhino is butchered, the national highway is very often blocked with every A-Z associations and organizations chanting slogans against the forest force right in front of the Forest Department. Arre, how can the officials work under such unexpected and uncalled for pressure, as if their office work pressure is not enough? Do they run chasing-off poachers or run to save their own skin from the public ire? In the melee, a suspected poacher vanishes into thin air or a real one moves away scot-free. The locals instead of providing support to the administration resorts to burning of the effigy of the Forest Minister and forest officers, shouting Murdabad, Murdabad! I am sure there are other peaceful ways to express protest in a democratic and civilized society. Public resorting to vandalism like trashing of forest personnels, damaging emergency rescue vehicles of the government and engulfing it to flames is no solution. Otherwise what difference will be left between us (humans) and the wild beast?

Let’s go by examples: Maheswar Basumatary used to earn his living by lending a helping hand to poachers active in Kasugaon division of Manas NP. Thankfully the scenario changed when he realized his mistake and surrendered to the Government of Assam eight years back. He later joined the Bodoland Forest Protection Force taking part in various operations in nabbing poachers. He was even successful in convincing other poachers to surrender. He is presently occupied in the nurturing and rehabilitation of a rhino calf whose mother fell to the bullets. Maheswar Basumatary’s name is honoured in Jeevan’s “Special 10 of the Year” (Jeevan Initiative is a voluntary association of the state).

We cannot simply copy-paste and ape from Africa where it has been conducted as a means to deter poaching. We cannot be even sure of the ramification on the trimmed-horn rhino in terms of its behavior after the loss, the horn’s role in attracting its mate, mate selection, mating and procreation, mother-baby nursing and nurturing, its use as a body-weapon defence, navigation and removing impediments from its ‘straight’ path etc. Probably the male rhino will look a shade less ‘manly’ (and what about its impact on the rhino’s manliness?) and rob off the feminine beauty and grace of the females. Well, if a section of humans believe that the rhino horn could be used as an aphrodisiac; can’t it also be the same for the living-being on whose body it grows?  Moreover, I surmise not much research has been carried out on the evolutionary aspects of the rhino horn. So, how are we to gauge its latent role in the animals’ evolution? The horn of the rhino cannot be treated as a mere vestigial body part. No parallelism should be drawn to that of cutting one’s (humans) hair or nail with that of rhino’s de-horning. How can the Forest Department vivisect the very animal they are suppose to protect? In this age of animal rights activism, no one has the right to do it, neither poacher(s) illegally nor the Department of Forest, Government of Assam legally. Every animal has the right to move freely with its nose held high.

If one goes by logic, in case there is an imminent physical threat to us, do we increase monitoring, remain alert, take precaution or do we go for a ‘body-part cut remedy’? Sounds illogical, right? Well, if the Government of Assam can propose such an absurd, cruel, weird and illogical move, so can its citizen.

Gathering citizens’ opinion on de-horning of translocated rhinos could mean that there is a cul-de-sac beyond which the Forest Dept gives up because it cannot face the lurking danger? It sure will send a wrong signal to the poachers.

  

Will we have another bank: a ‘One-horned Rhinoceros Bank’ where the valuable horn will be preserved for safe custody? And what is the guarantee that trimmed rhino horns will not be stolen from such banks? When a rhino is killed by poachers at least the public gets to know of rhino poaching. If the rhino horn is stolen from such a bank I doubt if we will ever get to know.

I vividly remember the numerous trips to upper Assam: when we accompanied our parents to our ancestral home in Golaghat, or to visit my two brothers who studied in a boarding school at Digboi or in some of Deota’s official tours to upper Assam. While crossing Kaziranga, my Deota would halt the vehicle on spotting a rhino and all of us would get down silently and quietly watch admiring the rhino esp. it horn from afar, from the national highway as it grazed the grass. And if we were lucky enough we even spotted mama and baby rhinos together. Ah! What pleasure it was for the senses! That was three decades back. In the present context, when I raised the question to my young nephew who is reading in class VIII in Sanskriti- the Gurukul, whether the rhino should be de-horned, his young mind reasoned that “it must never be done because God has created it this way”. “Dumping the rhinos from the frying pan into the fire” is the most apt response on translocated rhinos poached in Manas, as rightly commented by one of my animal activist friends. As it is the translocated rhino will be already traumatized because of change in its habitat. Chopping its horn will be rubbing salt in the wound.

Perhaps the Forest Department, Government of Assam, cannot see the wood for the trees if it decides to de-horn the rhinos as a step to curb poaching. The Forest Minister had stated in the Assembly that the final decision on the matter of de-horning the rhinos would commence only after the expert committee submits its report. If this gets a green signal, de-horning the rhinos would be the most extreme and bizarre measure that cannot be justified from any angle. If translocated or straying rhinos are de-horned, a rhino crash* (pun intended) is inevitable. (*crash or a herd is a collective noun for a group of rhinoceroses).

While voicing my protest against the imminent government move on de-horning, I would at the same time like to salute the forest guards who live in relative isolation in remote forest camps inside the national parks, surveilling the parks 24x7 (my personal observations based on my countless visits to Kaziranga NP, Pobitora WS, Manas NP), working under adverse conditions and circumstances more so during floods; I also salute those who have lost their lives while on duty in trying to shield our one-horned rhinos from the hands of the poacher. I would also commend on the hard-work, dedication and determination of forest officials and personnels of the Forest Department. Managing such a herculean task and colossal force is not everyone’s cup of tea.

While I write this as an animal lover, please take this to be the voice of thousands of citizens who share my viewpoints who cannot write and hence cannot reach you via email or by post; citizens living in other states of India and in other countries who may not be aware of such a government move but who in all probability feel more for Assam as well as feel for the rhinos in Assam, than we do here.

Until then let’s keep our fingers-crossed so that the tide could be reversed. Let’s also hope that we don’t get to see butchered pachyderms anymore and pray for their safety. Amen!

N.B.- Those of you who agree with my opinion, pls write to the PCCF (email:  pccf.wl.assam@gmail.com) voicing your viewpoint before 30^th March, 2014 with the subject- “Opinion on proposed trimming of rhino horns”.

By Karobi Gogoi

The writer is a digital cartographer-GIS Quality Specialist,

an educator and an ardent animal lover (by-fault)