World heritage tag eludes Manas sanctuary again

Guwahati, July 5: Manas National Park will continue to bear the World Heritage Site in Danger tag even after 15 years while the fate of Majuli will be decided in a couple of days.

The 32nd meeting of the World Heritage Committee under way in Quebec City, Canada, has decided to keep Manas National Park on the danger list, much to the disappointment of the Assam forest department that went into an overdrive to get back the coveted heritage status for the national park.

“The committee has decided to leave Manas on the List of World Heritage Site in Danger,” Unesco spokesman Roni Amelan said in an email to The Telegraph. The decision was taken yesterday.

The decision was taken after reviewing the report of the monitoring mission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Unesco that visited Manas early this year. “We are hoping positively that the situation will improve next year,” the park’s director, A. Swargiari said.

The wildlife sanctuary has been on Unesco’s list of World Heritage Site in Danger from 1992 onwards.

Swargiari said the process of restoration has started in a big way but it will still take some time for the steps to bear fruit and yield the desired result.

A source said the monitoring mission in its draft report had asked the park authorities to set up a full-time monitoring system that will allow monitoring and documentation of the flagship species — rhino, tiger and elephant.

The team had told them to complete infrastructure and ensure early release of funds besides consolidating conservation efforts by increasing the number of swamp deer and one-horned rhino population. It has also called for checking poaching and illegal felling of trees in the Panbari range of the national park.

The Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) is taking steps to improve the park’s infrastructure.
The BTC is already taking steps to improve infrastructure in the national park.
Ground conservation action commenced after the signing of an agreement between the Bodo people and the Government of India in 2003 and the subsequent formation of the Bodoland Territorial Council.

“We need to work harder and that requires a collective effort. Evidence suggests that steps have been taken. But our endeavour should be strengthen,” a park official said.
On the fate of Majuli, the committee will take a decision in the next couple of days but Dispur and Delhi are hopeful of getting the riverine island included in list of World Heritage Sites.

source: telegraph india

‘Politics’ behind rhino poaching

Hinting that there could be a ‘political conspiracy’ in the spurt in rhino poaching in the famed Kaziranga National Park, Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain today said that the CBI inquiry would throw light on different aspects of the rhino killings. The State Government is also contemplating amending relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act-1972 to give more teeth to the deterrent measures like making poaching punishable by 7 to 10 years. Meanwhile, following Thursday’s killing of a rhino in Kaziranga, the State Government has constituted a committee with BS Bonal, CCF (Wildlife), which has been asked to submit a report immediately after an on-the-spot inquiry. Addressing a press conference, Hussain said that the killing of rhinos invariably coincided with some instability in the political sphere “as when a particular party was defeated in panchayat polls or when a leader of that party joined the Congress.” “However, since the matter has been handed over to the CBI, it would not be proper to dwelt more on this. We are confident that the CBI would unravel many hidden aspects of the recent rhino poaching,” he said. Asserting that the Forest Department was initiating adequate measures to protect the rhino, the Minister said that the spurt in poaching made it imperative that the law was made more stringent for dealing with forest crimes, especially poaching. “We want to have the Wildlife Protection Act-1972 amended for extending the term of a convicted poacher to 7 to 10 years instead of the present 3 years,” Hussain said, adding that such an amendment could be an effective deterrent.This year poachers have killed seven rhinos of the Kaziranga National Park besides three in the Orang National Park. Source: assam tribune