GUWAHATI, Nov 6 - A lethal cocktail of poaching, militancy, encroachment and illegal trade in wildlife body parts is proving to be a bane for Manas National Park. As forest officials and wildlife experts believe, the latest seizure of a tiger skin and the arrest of a surrendered NDFB ultra precisely point to the nefarious nexus.
Worse, the authorities are also convinced that the seizure of the skin � that belonged to a magnificent male tiger translocated from Sivasagar district a few years back � is the proverbial tip of the iceberg vis-�-vis illegal wildlife trade that is choking Manas.
�This seizure strongly points to the operation of a big racket. The arrested NDFB man, Bwlwgwra Basumatary, who was also involved in an arms snatching case in Agrang forest camp, is the kingpin in this particular case. But a larger network is obviously operating,� HK Sarma, Director, Manas Tiger Reserve, told The Assam Tribune.
According to forest officials, growing encroachment in the Bhuyapara and Panbari ranges has been acting to the advantage of poachers. �In fact, the poisoning of the tiger � a splendid specimen � took place at Betbari, an encroached area under Bhuyapara. Bwlwgwra and three of his arrested accomplishes are encroachers,� Sarma said.
Around 16 sq km area in Bhuyapara is under encroachment. Even a larger area is under encroachment in Panbari. Conservationists are worried that unless an eviction drive is launched immediately, tackling wildlife crimes in Manas would acquire more complexities. �We are planning to launch an eviction at Bhuyapara soon. Following the death of the tiger, the local people are also realizing the disturbing fallouts of encroachment,� Sarma said.
Sarma added that forest, police and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau were investigating the case. �Of late, Nanglang, a point near Bhutan border is emerging as a conduit for smuggling of wildlife body parts. It�s a remote area and lacks presence of police and security forces,� he said.
Any unnatural tiger death is a big blow to conservation, more so in Manas which has just about 20 tigers. According to a report from wildlife trade monitor TRAFFIC and WWF, there is no evidence of a decline in tiger trafficking across Asia, with parts equating to a minimum of 1,755 tigers seized between 2000 and 2015 � an average of more than two animals per week.