UPDATE (October 12, 2001)

The hazards of forest guard work in India's Corbett National Park

Friday, October 12, 2001
By Ellen McCarty, Environmental News Network

Little is known about the forest guards who risk their lives in India's mountainous Corbett National Park to protect sensitive wildlife from well-armed poachers.

Harish Chandra Dhyani, a 17-year veteran of the reserve, describes how an international partnership is helping his men and endangered species survive.

Morning in the moist, tropical forest of Corbett National Park begins with a cacophony of birds. Monsoon season brings with it the dissonant melodies of the cuckoo, brain fever bird, and magpie robin. During the summer, the metallic calls of the barbet usher in the sunrise. As the day wears on, forest guards hear the swish of elephants moving through the dense forest and the occasional roar of a tiger.

There is a saying in these parts, however, that the tiger sees you many more times than you see him. Its elusive presence is often announced by the alarm calls of other animals. The sambar, spotted, and barking deer react immediately to the presence of a predator, leaving a rush of undulating flora in their wake.

The guards track tiger movements through this code of alarm calls, pugmarks, territorial sprays, and kills, but sometimes it is unclear who is following whom. Harish Chandra Dhyani, a Corbett guard for the last 17 years, remembers his most unnerving encounter with a tiger. He was walking through the park at twilight after buying provisions at a local shop. Five miles from park headquarters, he sensed he was being followed. He turned around but could not see or hear anything. Darkness was descending rapidly. He retraced his steps and found a tige's footprint covering his own. Knowing he could not outrun the animal, he climbed a nearby banyan tree and spent the night perched in its branches.

The next morning when he climbed down, he found the tiger's pugmarks all around the base of the tree. "It was a very scary feeling because I could not see the animal," he said. "I do not think the tiger had any intention of attacking me. It was simply curious of a human being walking through its territory. Nevertheless, it was one of my most frightening experiences."

Two thousand elephants and 100 tigers inhabit the park, but the animals are the least of Dhyani’s fears. Far more dangerous are the poachers, who are more sophisticated, heavily-armed, and organized. They pose a constant threat to Corbett's wildlife and its government-funded protectors.

"Big cats and elephants attack only if they are cornered or have cubs or calves with them," Dhyani said. "It is a rare occasion that the staff is attacked by animals. The danger is usually from the well-armed and equipped poachers who do not hesitate to kill."

Between December 2000 and February 2001, seven elephants in Corbett were found dead. The poachers shot the animals with poison arrows and chopped of their heads to extract the ivory. A smaller number of tigers and deer have been poached in the park during the last decade, but the sight is equally gruesome. Once poachers kill a tiger, they remove the skin along with the nails and leave the rest of the carcass behind.

Until now, the park has been ill-equipped to respond to these violent acts. Each forest guard is expected to patrol a wide swath of land primarily on foot, accompanied by two or more assistants. Only about 250 guards patrol the mountainous 509-square-mile reserve, which takes about 10 days to cross on foot. Many rangers lack the basic equipment —protective clothing, good shoes, and water bottles — necessary to survive the reserve, which ranges in temperature from 32 degree Fahrenheit in the winter to 110 degrees in the summer.

To make matters worse, poachers tend to enter the forest when normal park activity is restricted, especially during monsoons. The heavy rains destroy most of the roads, and patrolling by vehicle becomes impossible.

Even when poachers are spotted in the park, many guards are unaware of the laws protecting wildlife and are unsure of their own authority to arrest them, said Kyla Bennett, a deputy director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

The American organization has begun working with the Wildlife Trust of India to provide training as well as antipoaching kits to bolster the park's efforts. "By providing necessities to the rangers, we hope to improve not only their ability to traverse the reserve in search of poachers but also improve their morale," Bennett said. "We believe that protecting tigers and elephants in India is of utmost importance. It is not enough to designate an area as a park or reserve. The protection must be real and on the ground."

Protection is not just for wildlife but for guards as well. IFAW has donated US$20,000 this year to teach Corbett's forest guards wildlife law, wildlife crime investigation, and how to build intelligence networks to prevent crimes. The money is also funding the distribution of winter jackets, raincoats, backpacks, flashlights, hiking shoes, sleeping bags, water bottles, and weapons.

"For most of us, given the current state of unemployment in the country, there is not much of a choice (as far as occupation)," Dhyani said. "However, we are local people with our roots in the forest and believe that Indian wildlife is not just for the Indians but for the whole world to see and cherish."

While the guards greatly appreciate the training and antipoaching equipment donated to Corbett, Dhyani said many reserves throughout India need more vehicles and resources to effectively patrol sensitive areas and prevent poaching. "The IFAW-Wildlife Trust of India training and supplies will provide us the much-needed weapons and skills to make our job in the forest easier," he added. "We feel someone cares for us and the work that we do."

Ellen McCarty is a freelance writer in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Special thanks to Aniruddha Mookerjee for translating the interview with Harish Chandra Dhyani.

UPDATE (August 29, 2001)

In heart of Corbett, poachers kill ranger
AJAY SURI NEW DELHI, AUGUST 29:

ARMED poachers shot dead a deputy ranger at the Corbett National Park in Uttaranchal on Tuesday evening, a stone's throw away from the park's head office.

The signals of the brazen attack had been blowing in the wind for the past ten days: the gang that killed ranger Bipin Chand Pandey had, during this period, snatched rifles from two persons, abducted forest guard Dayal Singh Rana, stripped the uniforms off a group of forest guards and molested a Gujjar woman.

Pandey's team had been combing the forest along with other patrols to track Rana's abductors. The team stumbled upon the abductors at a stretch joining Amdanda with Bijrani, and the gang members, who were dressed in khaki uniforms, opened fire. Pandey was shot in the head and he died on the spot.

Though the team managed to free Rana, forest guard Hira Singh is struggling for life at a Ramnagar hospital with a punctured lung. The other guard, Janardan Pathak, is also in critical condition. The park has since been sealed.

Forest staff, assisted by Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) jawans, have begun hunting for the culprits, who officials say could have reached the park through its southern boundary from Bijnour. Though officials wouldnât confirm it, honorary park warden Brijender Singh says there could be a link between the culprits and the elephant poachers who had vanished after killing five tuskers recently.

Singh urged authorities to deploy tracker dogs inside the forest. Considering the Corbett terrain at the moment, this could be the best move. The dogs can follow the scent of the killers and help authorities track them down faster.ââ The criminals' escape could have been facilitated by the park's porous southern boundary, which is a stone's throw from Bijnour town and is dotted by several villages.

The Wildlife Trust of India's (WTI) Ashok Kumar says there is a crying need for an expert team to patrol the southern fringes. The force should be a permanent one, well versed in modern patrolling techniques and armed with modern weapons. As it is, several guards in the forest don'ât even maintain a proper patrolling roster. All this has to change, otherwise it will be tough to save Corbett from the poachers, " he said.

UPDATE (August 7, 2001)

Red-Tape May Be Noose for Corbett Tuskers
by Ajay Suri

New Delhi, India —August 7, 2001

Operation Lord, the much-touted offensive against the elephant killers of Corbett National Park, is in danger of falling apart at its most crucial juncture. The reason? The bureaucrats of Project Tiger have stopped payment to 275 people engaged by the park authorities to track down the ivory hunters.

The Uttaranchal Government has pressed the panic button, Chief Minister Nityanand Swamy ia rushing to Delhi to plead Corbett's case witht he Union Environment Ministry.

Since February, none of those involved with the Corbett operation has received any payment. According to the agreement reached with the state forest department, Project Tiger authorities in New Delhi owe Rs 45 lakh ($100,000) in salaries for the past six months.

Project Tiger director, P.K. Sen, admits the lapse but says he is completely helpless. "The file is stuck with our integrated finance department. Unless they clear it, the money can't be released." he told the Indian Express today.

The urgency is because this is the most dangerous period for elephants. The monsoon rains have already wiped out all motorable tracks inside Corbett, providing armed poachers unhindered access. Removing the task force now, say experts, will virtually mean the end of Operation Lord.

Sources close to senior Corbett authorities say that talks with the Environment Ministry to sort out the stalemate are at a delicate stage and maintain that non-payment of dues has hit the force hard. Most of them are young people who reside in the vicinity of Corbett who came rushing when we sought their help. Many of them have fallen ill while chasing the poachers.

To make matters worse for them, the area swarms with blind-flies during the monsoons. These flies attack elephants mercilessly. To escape the flies, elephants move to the hills. These men [who protect them] have no choice but to follow them up the hills, the most inhospitable part of Corbett even at the best of times.

A committee, set up by the Central Government and headed by Sen, had recommended the launch of Operation Lord where locals are involved in anti-poaching operations.

UPDATE (July, 2001):

The Elephant Sanctuary has agreed to fund organized anti-poaching activity in Corbett National Park. Thanks to the generous donations of Sanctuary members, the Corbett Bulls are now being protected from poachers.

In addition to providing the meager monthly wages ($67/month/person) for two anti- poaching agents, the Sanctuary will provide camping gear and fuel for the patrol vehicle as well as monitoring equipment such as cameras and a GPS devise.

Money is needed for film, developing, video tapes, and batteries all necessary for monitoring elephant and poaching activity in the park. The Sanctuary recently provided a video camera which has proven quite beneficial for record keeping.

The anti-poaching agents will be on duty to help prevent another incident like that one that took the lives of four Corbett Bulls. The agents' activities will include not only patrolling for poachers but collecting data and information crucial to the survival of these elephants. The agents will collect information on elephant populations as well as talk with villagers to collect local intelligence data. A census will be taken and the elephant population will be monitored.

The first installment of funds was sent to purchase fuel for anti poaching vehicles and other supplies. Additional monies will be sent quarterly.

Thank you for helping to protect the precious few left in the wild.

Eight Poachers of Corbett Park Elephants Captured! — Read the latest news (entered 6/7/01)