A Journey from being Former Poachers to Forest Conservationists

Guwahati: From poachers to forest conservationists! The journey for Buddheswar Boro, a former poacher at the Manas National Park along with three other former poachers has been quite challenging and their transformation from poachers to forest conservationists is remarkable.

The Manas National Park (MNP) has been the home to several rare and endangered species, including tigers, rhinos, swamp deer, and different species of birds.

In the 1990s, Budheswar Boro was a “poacher” at the Manas National Park (MNP), a UNESCO World Heritage Site forest stretching across 850-sq km on the Indo-Bhutan border in Assam. He reportedly lost his right hand in 1998 after an injured wild boar, which he had shot at, charged back at him.

However, Boro, 48, still carries a rifle and spends the day in the forest but no longer as a poacher but as a “conservation volunteer”. He is a member of the NGO Manas Maozigendri Ecotourism Society (MMES) and, along with three other former poachers, assists an official forest guard in keeping vigil inside the MNP.

It may be noted that for Boro, and scores of rehabilitated former poachers like him, every step towards redeveloping the MNP is a significant achievement.

As per reports, for instance, on October 5, authorities at the MNP announced the birth of the 37th rhino in the park. The 37th rhino was born to Rhino No. 6 translocated from Pobitora on January 18, 2011, of Bhuyanpara Range of the National Park. It was Rhino No. 6’s third calf — one in 2013 and another in 2015. According to government data, six rhino calves were born in the MNP in 2017-18.

The birth, however, is significant at Manas, which was ravaged by insurgency and political instability in the 1990s, plummeting the population of one-horned rhinoceros to zero in 2002, from around 100 before 2000.

It needs to be mentioned here that this revival at MNP, which falls in the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) is the result of a rhino translocation process that started a decade back and an effective community engagement programme that has seen scores of former poachers, like Boro, turn into conservation activists.

Talking in this regard, Kalicharan Basumatary, President of MMES and a former activist of ABSU said that the organisation was formed in 2003 and has 49 active conservation volunteers of which at least 10 are former “hardcore poachers” and a few illegal loggers.

He further added saying that “The most devastating period for the MNP was in the 1990s when political instability, militancy and disorder in administration in the region had led to a complete drop in forest protection and conservation measures.

Expressing deep concern, a spokesperson of Assam's Forest And Environment Ministry said that “Manas is on its way to recovery and fast regaining lost glory.”

"Manas has a good grassland habitat and since the overall protection scenario has increased, putting rhinos back to Manas and other such areas in Assam was felt necessary,” said Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, a member of Rhino Task Force formed by Assam in 2005 to give effect to Indian Rhino Vision 2020, and a member of the “Translocation Core Committee”.

It needs to be mentioned here that initially, two committees under Rhino Task Force were constituted one, to look at the condition of habitats in release sites and the other, to inquire into the security aspects of release sites.