(Image Courtesy - AFP News)
By urging experts to help reduce animal deaths due to floods in Kaziranga national park, Assam, the state’s Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain seems to be washing his hands off the responsibility. What is more tragic is that the Minister has quoted facts of several past instances of animal deaths due to floods in the national park, as if this is a normal phenomena that doesn’t merit any cause for large scale rescue operations by the Forest Department officials.
Sunshine or hailstorm, the responsibility of wildlife welfare has always been with the Forest Department. The figures quoted by the Minister indicate that 559 animals were killed in the current floods, whereas 652 died in the 1998 floods. From an animal conservation perspective, a decrease in 100 casualties is no cause to rejoice, especially considering the widely publicized efforts by the Department to safeguard animals during natural calamities. Measures such as increased patrols, purchase of additional speedboats for patrol, creation of artificial highlands for shelter, setting up of corridors for the safe passage of animals across National Highway–37, have been highlighted time and again in many speeches by the Minister.
The media, perhaps caught up in covering the greater tragedy of human deaths and displacement, seems to have forgotten to even ask the Minister some fundamental questions - why was there no advance rescue programme to take the animals to shelter, considering some animals started mass migrating a few days prior to the floods? If natives could help animals into safe zones, why did the Forest Department not have the resources to do that? If poachers could kill animals as they scrambled for safety outside the national park, why did the Department not have any officials stationed nearby to prevent this?
The Planning Commission clearly mentions disaster management as an area assigned to the Forest and Environment Department. Under the Disaster Management Act 2005, the respective state Departments are expected to present a five year plan detailing approaches, strategy and investment priorities for disaster management. A comprehensive paper by a Conservator of Forests, Varanasi Circle, Uttar Pradesh, details what exactly zoological parks need to do to manage disasters better. Perhaps journalists need to read that document to know what questions need to be asked when covering disasters in national parks.
(I wrote this post originally for the Hoot Blog. Click here to read the post and comments)
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