Exposing Kaziranga's 'untold secret' that government wants hushed up

The camera follows seven-year-old Akash Orang as he hobbles about, with the help of a rudimentary crutch, outside their hut, at the Kaziranga National Park (KNP). It is every parent's nightmare to see their child helpless and in pain, but that is exactly what his parents are going through. His father answers questions patiently.

Yes, he was shot at by the park's security personnel. Yes, he has problems expressing his feelings now. Yes, yes, he may lose his leg.

A scene from the documentary Killing for Conservation, (currently making national headlines), it exposes the inhumane anti-poaching policies of the forest authorities.

The environment ministry has called for the film to be banned in India - and for the blacklisting of Justin Rowlatt, the BBC journalist behind the film. Whether such a move will succeed in keeping Kaziranga’s “untold secret” is anybody’s guess.

KNP, home to diverse wildlife and the endangered “one-horned” rhinoceros, is being used like a pawn to sell everything - from stereotypes to values to misinformation. Over the years, the park has maintained secrecy over matters that ought legally to be in documents - like the number of people who have been killed on site for poaching and their whereabouts.

There also ought to be clarity in terms of who orders the guards to shoot poachers to death. The criteria seem to be a random one (in fact, I doubt clearly stated criteria exist and are being followed). Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the ice-berg, indicating the laziness of forest authorities to deal with poaching laws.

Rowlatt’s film takes a quick peep into these problems and lists them; this is definitely a start that must alarm the state. But, it does lack detail in terms of various tribal demands, their histories, land rivalries and the flux that comes with changing government regimes.

That doesn’t mean it shows the park in “negative” light; instead, it throws a different kind of light, and we must respect that difference. When you protest every bit of criticism with a cry of “negative” light, it’s obvious that what you really want is unquestionable darkness.

I remember reading the prolific Arup Kumar Dutta's adventure story The Kaziranga Trail (1978) as a child. Within the first 30 pages of the book, a group of precocious children (Dhanai, Bubul and Jonti) stumble upon the battered corpse of a rhino, with the footprints of poachers nearby. But the myopic forest officials refuse to believe the children for a long time.

We are told they were living in the village nearby long before the park became a sanctuary. So, the turbulence and transformation of inhabited lands is hinted at extremely well.

That’s why I think Rowlatt’s documentary, made many years later, broached a significant topic in a time of intensive deforestation: the case of the eviction drive. Since 2016, the debate between people encroaching illegal lands and the natives has fuelled up as a burning issue.

This is part of the “we have to choose our enemy” dictum of Himanta Biswa Sarma’s team which has begun the cleansing of people from “protected areas”.

One must think, how is this policy going to be implemented to conserve wildlife, and will it include a change in poaching laws? Secondly, what preventive measures shall be taken to rehabilitate/re-educate the ones who will be shifting their houses? What shall be the far reaching consequences of that conflict - inflicting more torture doesn’t beat existing conflict, surely we know that?

A census in 2013 (source: The Hindu) shows a heartening rise in the number of rhinos and scientific experiments are doing a good job at it. I hope they don’t go overboard with that too, just like they did with the anti-poaching laws.

It is tough to take any particular side in this story of wildlife measures, much is yet to be transparent. But we can do our bit: be careful and stop the madness of “poking” nature like it is some kind of soft toy.

Rowlatt’s film should alert tourists (both inside and outside Assam) to move on from the “exotic-endangered” animal fetish that can also potentially harm the quietude of a national park. For instance, they could control the desire of clicking selfies with the rhino, or yelling while on a jeep safari and so on.

In 1515, the German painter Albrecht Durer made a woodcut of an African rhinoceros - without actually seeing one - based on written descriptions. The result was several anatomical errors, like a horn on its back, scaly legs and a prickly backside. For over three centuries, this illustration was copied by other European artists and the fallacies propagated.

Back in KNP it seems that the forest officials have decided beforehand what a rhino poacher looks like - and on bad days, he looks like a 10-year-old cowherd.

The only problem is that this is not 1515 and if there is anybody whose hands are clean in the entire saga of Kaziranga, it probably is the rhino’s.

Also read: Can Africa put an end to the billion dollar rhino horn smuggling?