Guwahati: The strategy undertaken by the Assam Forest Department can be the best model to follow for the national parks and wildlife centuries from the rest of the country to prevent animals from being poached, said a senior forest official.
The forest official’s remarks come after a forest guard was shot dead by poachers at Naana jungle under Similipal Pithabata forest range in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj.
According to reports, the forest guard identified as Bimal Kumar Jena, was shot dead by poachers during a routine patrolling.
As per reports, the deceased forest guard had seized arms and ammunition from the poachers and was speaking over the phone during patrolling when somebody shot him in the chest.
It is suspected that a poacher who gave him a slip during patrolling shot at him.
It may be mentioned that although forest guards conduct regular patrolling to prevent poaching and protect wildlife, forest guards and officials in most of the national parks and wildlife centuries in the rest of the country don’t stay in the anti-poaching camps.
Poachers often take advantage of the absence of guards in the camps and resorted to poaching wildlife.
“In Assam, our staff in national parks work round-the-clock. They stay in the designated anti-poaching camp day in, day out. The forest guards who risk their lives and limbs every day, stay away from their families for weeks and months and brave bullets of poachers,” Rohini Ballav Saikia, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Kamrup East Division told Northeast Now.
There are as many as 223 anti-poaching camps in Kaziranga National Park and forest staff stay there round the clock.
IFS officer Saikia, who played a key role in notifying Garbhanga Reserve forest as wildlife century, said such efforts of the forest guards and officials to protect the magnificent animals of Assam yielded significant results.
Over the years, the national parks in Assam including Kaziranga recorded a significant drop in the number of rhinos that have been poached.
Assam recorded zero poaching of endangered rhinos in 2022.