Ranthambore Wildlife Crime Workshop Emphasizes Need for

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 NEW DELHI 005322 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR OES/PCI, OES/ENV, AND SCA/INS INTERIOR FOR FRED BAGLEY AND MINI NAGENDRAN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV TBIO SOCI KSCA IN SUBJECT: Ranthambore Wildlife Crime Workshop Emphasizes Need for Enforcement Training to Protect India's Tigers NEW DELHI 00005322 001.2 OF 003 ¶1. SUMMARY: The New Delhi ESTH and Public Affairs sections held a wildlife crime workshop November 4 - 6 near Ranthambore National Park (RNP) in order to highlight USG commitment to wildlife conservation and to provide much needed training to park rangers, local police, and prosecutors in crime scene techniques, forensics, intelligence gathering, and case prosecution. Held under the auspices of the Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking, OES Assistant Secretary Claudia McMurray attended the workshop as did senior officials from the Government of India, the Rajasthan State Forest Department, several NGOs, and over 60 forest guards from both Ranthambore and Sariska National Parks. The workshop received substantial local press coverage. END SUMMARY. ¶2. The ESTH Office, with funding from Public Affairs, partnered with the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI),a leading NGO dealing with wildlife crime and headed by the dynamo of Indian tiger conservation, Belinda Wright. The first day of the three-day conference was focused on policy with the remaining two days reserved for training park rangers and local police in techniques for gathering prosecutable evidence and intelligence networking with a heavy emphasis on the importance of basic forensics. Sawai Madhopur, outside Ranthambore National Park, was selected as the venue for the workshop due to the fact that the most serious threat to Ranthambore's tiger population is from illegal poaching. -------------- -------------- KEYNOTE PLAYS A KEY ROLE DURING POLICY DISCUSSION -------------- -------------- ¶3. Assistant Secretary McMurray's keynote address emphasized the long-standing cooperation between the United States and India in the field of wildlife conservation and highlighted the need to strengthen enforcement both bi-laterally and multi-laterally through organizations such as CAWT in order to combat the illegal wildlife trade which is now widely recognized to be part of international organized crime. Considering R.N. Mehrotra, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests in Rajasthan, noted the fact there is no domestic market for poached tigers and that all illegal tiger parts are sold outside the borders of India, the commitment of the United States to stopping international wildlife trafficking was strongly welcomed by all participants. ¶4. Additional presentations by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII),TRAFFIC International, WPSI, and local police officials focused on the need for better understanding of wildlife laws to improve conviction rates; the importance of forensics in crime solving; the use of science based conservation techniques to aid better management of endangered wildlife populations; and the importance of better resources, training, and facilities for forest guards to ensure effective patrolling. -------------- DISSENTION HIGHLIGHTS NEED FOR COOPERATION -------------- ¶5. In a provocative speech, Fateh Singh Rathore, the celebrated former director of both Sariska and Ranthambore National Parks and founder and current head of the NGO Tiger Watch, raised the issue of competition between NGOs for funding and highlighted questionable practices of government organizations charged with wildlife conservation and other NGOs who he accused of planting evidence such as tiger skins in order to obtain arrests. This led to a heated exchange between Tiger Watch and Ranthambhore forest officials with V.P. Singh, Chairman of Rajasthan's Steering Committee on Forestry and Wildlife, questioning Tiger Watch's activities since 2005 and noting that Tiger Watch was quick to criticize the Forest Department during the decline in the tiger population but has said nothing regarding the Forest Department's success over the last two years in reviving the tiger population at RNP. The incident underscored the theme of Consul General Peter Kaestner's speech which emphasized the need for all parties to put their differences aside and focus on the real problem, conserving the tiger. ¶6. The following two days of the workshop were conducted in Hindi and were solely focused on training forest guards and police officials on handling wildlife crime. Important aspects of the wildlife protection laws were discussed as was an overview of poaching techniques, signs to look for in a wildlife crime scene, indicators signifying the presence of poachers in the area, and other extraneous factors that lead to increased poaching activities. NEW DELHI 00005322 002.2 OF 003 This was followed by the creation of four mock wildlife crime scenes in which the participants were divided into four groups and then tasked with evaluating the scene, apprehending the guilty, preparing the necessary paperwork for prosecution, and producing evidence. The workshop culminated with mock trials and an evaluation. The response of the forest guards and local police was overwhelmingly positive, with multiple calls for additional training. -------------- PRESS COVERAGE -------------- ¶7. Embassy New Delhi's Information Office coordinated media coverage for the opening session of the workshop in order to highlight U.S. support for wildlife conservation. Several English and vernacular language newspapers with both regional and national readerships as well as a national TV news channel carried positive stories on the workshop that underlined the need for all relevant stakeholders to work collaboratively toward the common goal of protecting India's tigers. ¶8. A leading 24-hour English TV news channel, "Times Now" which has an estimated viewer-ship of 20 million, accompanied A/S McMurray into Ranthambore National Park as part of a story on the dwindling tiger population and U.S. efforts to bring together officials from the national and state governments in addition to experts from non-governmental organizations involved in wildlife protection. The story featured comments from A/S McMurray stressing the need for Indian citizens to be aware of the tiger poaching problem in order to halt illegal trafficking and to restore the tiger population. ¶9. The English daily "The Hindu" (circulation 981,000) described the workshop as a collaborative effort between India and the United States to protect India's wild tigers and prevent wildlife crime and quoted American officials as saying there was an "urgency" to protect "the rest of the tiger population before it is too late." ¶10. The "Dainik Bhaskar," one of India's largest Hindi dailies (circulation 2.2 million) highlighted the workshop's goals of stopping poaching and preventing illegal wildlife trafficking. In a related story on the workshop, the Hindi Daily "Rajasthan Patrika" (circulation 670,000) called wildlife trafficking a global problem requiring a global solution. Both papers welcomed the training for forest guards and police officials provided by the workshop. There was also widespread coverage in the Urdu language press including the "Urdu Times," "Jadeed in-Dinon," "Pratap," "Hindustan Express" and "Akhbar-e-Mashrique" which all noted U.S. support for tiger conservation in India. -------------- -------------- TRAFFIC INDIA WORKING TO CREATE AWARENESS AT ALL LEVELS -------------- -------------- ¶11. In a side meeting with A/S McMurray, Samir Sinha, the head of TRAFFIC India, discussed their efforts to raise awareness of illegal wildlife trade issues though the South Asia Cooperative Environment Program (SACEP) rather than through the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC),due to TRAFFIC's contention SAARC has become too political. He emphasized the need to close existing gaps in wildlife laws in transit countries which are currently used by poachers and middlemen to evade prosecution and noted that while the GOI's much anticipated Wildlife Crime Bureau (WCB) was now finally in existence, it is not yet functioning due to unspecified bureaucratic issues within the GOI. ¶12. Sinha also outlined TRAFFIC India's future plans to help curb wildlife crime which include providing training to the Indian judiciary on the illegal wildlife trade and wildlife crime in India. He commented such training would not necessarily be welcomed "as judges do not like being taught the law," but noted the need to sensitize the judiciary regarding wildlife crime and its impact. He suggested the participation of John Webb of the Department of Justice's Environmental and Natural Resources Division would be most beneficial in facilitating the workshop. -------------- -------------- WILDLIFE INSTITUTE OF INDIA ASSISTANCE FOR TIGERS -------------- -------------- NEW DELHI 00005322 003.2 OF 003 ¶13. In a separate meeting with A/S McMurray, the Director of the Wildlife Institute of India, P.R. Sinha, reiterated the need for strict enforcement. In an effort to address the problem, WII has now started providing three weeks of specialized training to customs officials on combating the illegal international trade in wildlife. Sinha also noted WII is in the process of preparing the final report on the status of tigers in India which will be released by the end of 2007. This is the much awaited tiger census that will for the first time provide accurate numbers based on a scientific study of India's tiger population. Sinha provided a broad generalization of the results stating that by and large, the status of tigers in protected areas is satisfactory, but outside national parks the populations have drastically crashed. This in turn is a problem for the source populations which have to disperse as they become larger and in the absence of good habitat, prey base and protection, they become more vulnerable. He advocated landscape level planning and said it is time India starts looking at creating landscape level management plans to protect its wildlife. ¶14. A/S McMurray asked Sinha whether India was willing to engage the United States further on tiger conservation considering the strong reluctance to do so in 2005. Sinha candidly admitted India was very defensive regarding the tiger situation in the past due to lack of adequate data but now that the census is almost completed, the GOI is willing to re-engage. He stated his best estimate was that India had only approximately 1500 to 1600 wild tigers remaining. Sinha also mentioned that WII is now in the process of mapping the tiger genome across India and that WII has been assigned the task of scientifically relocating tigers to the troubled Sariska National Park which had lost all of its tigers due to poaching in ¶2005. -------------- -------------- TROUBLES WITH TIGER WATCH AND POACHER REHABILITATION -------------- -------------- ¶15. During a field visit to a school for children of rehabilitated poachers run by Tiger Watch, the children's fathers, ex-poachers themselves, voiced their concerns to A/S McMurray. They noted their appreciation for the efforts made by Tiger Watch to educate their children, but stated they too needed assistance in obtaining a livelihood and that without such, they would return to poaching. ¶16. COMMENT: Several of Tiger Watch's programs have been shut down due to allegations of illegal land transactions in and around RNP involving Fateh Singh Rathore and his family. Tiger Watch counters by saying they are being unfairly persecuted for raising awareness of tiger losses at Ranthambore. While this may have been true in 2005, it is clearly not the case today and Tiger Watch's poacher rehabilitation programs remain contentious with other highly reputed NGOs preferring to focus on enforcement rather than rehabilitation. Enforcement training has widespread support from both the government and the conservation community and the success of the Embassy's wildlife crime workshop has spawned multiple requests for additional workshops in different regions of the country. END COMMENT. MULFORD