Foresters, paramilitary save wildlife in Uttar Pradesh

In a unique and rather ambitious operation, the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), a paramilitary border-guarding force, has been helping the Uttar Pradesh forest department (UPFD) save tigers and other precious wildlife in sanctuaries and reserve forest areas along the Indo-Nepal border.

UPFD foresters and armed SSB men jointly patrol areas along the Nepal border once a month, and with the desired effect — incidents of poaching or trapping of wild animals are virtually unheard of.

Forest officials say one of the main reasons for undertaking the special operation is that the threat to the big cat has heightened this year as China celebrates the “Year of the Tiger”.

The lucrative trade in China in tiger skins and bones, and hides of other animals, including leopard and deer, sends poachers into the protected forest area.

“It is a joint operation in true sense,” says RK Singh, divisional forest officer (DFO), Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, which is one of the three divisions of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR), and one which boasts an impressive tiger tally of over 60.

“Our men are getting arms and ambush training from the SSB while we tell them about wildlife, poaching symptoms and modus operandi of poachers, including how traps are laid and how the dealers in skins and other animal parts operate,” says Singh.

The Katerniaghat sanctuary, which has a rich base of wildlife, falls in east UP’s Bahraich district, which has an open border of about 110 km with Nepal. In Katerniaghat, which shares a 60 km border with Nepal, the SSB has set up 18 border outposts manned by about 700 personnel.

At one time, the area was known for poaching and cross-border smuggling. But now the incident in recent memory is the trapping of a leopard in October last year just outside the sanctuary.

Just last month, two poachers, including a Nepali, were arrested with six deer skins.

The SSB commandant at Katerniaghat Somit Joshi says the joint operation is having a “major deterrent effect” on the miscreants.

“You can well understand the impact of about 200 men, both from UPFD and SSB, patrolling each and every known animal route in this sanctuary… we have tried to make the operation visible so that the message goes out loud and clear that there is zero tolerance for poachers and other criminals,” he says.

That’s easier said than done.

The sanctuary is spread over a sprawling 400 sq km, and the joint operation takes five days of toil, round-the-clock.

Groups of 30 men each in each of Katerniaghat’s six ranges patrol the sanctuary area looking for traps, besides gathering information about poachers’ movements.