BBC Regrets for Showing the Anti-poaching Strategy of Kaziranga in Poor Light

Guwahati: It has been an old story now that British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had shown the Kaziranga National Park’s anti-poaching strategy in poor light, some five years ago; but it seems that it has realized its fault now only for which it conveyed its apologies for “any adverse impact” caused by the news documentary.

This has to be mentioned here in this context that due to the poor light filming of the anti-poaching strategy documentary on Kaziranga, BBC has been on a ban from filming on India’s national parks and wildlife sanctuaries for more than a year.

An Assamese daily reports that the National Tiger Conservation Authority, Dr Julian Hector, the head of BBC’s Natural History Unit, said he wished to discuss “all concerns” in detail. The letter states, “We, in the Natural History Unit, have observed your successful efforts in tiger conservation and are gravely concerned that the BBC documentary has made that work harder.” Furthermore, apologies for not approaching the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) earlier too are being stated by the BBC official.

The Central government had earlier said that the British broadcaster, in its documentary titled ‘Killing for Conservation’ has “misrepresented” the immunity provided to forest staff as a “shoot-to-kill” policy. The documentary prepared by BBC “projected a negative, malicious and sensational portrayal of India’s conservation success story at the Kaziranga Tiger Reserve” which caused “irreparable damage to the country’s reputation.”

The bad impact left by BBC on Assam and Kaziranga is that Survival International launched a campaign to boycott Kaziranga. Assam Forest Minister Parimal Suklabaidya said the BBC humiliated the department concerned and stated, “This technique of humiliating in public and apologising in private is not acceptable to the Assam Forest Department.”

Also read: Kaziranga National Park to reopen from Oct 12