Security for eco-guards

Some 50,000 badly trained, ill -equipped, underpaid and unmotivated forest guards are fighting on the frontlines in the war against wildlife crimes.

Some 50,000 badly trained, ill -equipped, underpaid and unmotivated forest guards are fighting on the frontlines in the war against wildlife crimes. They have been entrusted with the onerous task of protecting country's wildlife from those who profit from the trade of animal parts and animal products in the thriving underground market. But the irony is that the protectors have so little protection for themselves and hardly any security net for their families, that this war is lost even before the first shot is fired.

HT Image

Ram Bharose Dobal of Birod village, in Dhanulti district of Tehri-Garhwal is one such case. Despite working for the forest department for over nineteen years as a wildlife guard, Ram remained a casual labour till his death. In March 2003, he was brutally hacked to death, while on duty, for standing-up to those involved in smuggling of timber and non-timber forest produce (NTFP) from Gobind reserve forest in Uttaranchal. All that Ram had for his self-defence was a laathi!

After almost two decade in service, his monthly salary was Rs.2,200 and his worldly possessions comprise a ramshackle hut in his village, which his wife, two daughters and his son share, few bighas of land, a cow and a mountain of debt.