[Assam] Kaziranga & Manas on World Heritage Biodiversity Sites : Unesco

[Pradip Kumar Datta]

        now state govt. will take credit for this as this govt. failed to protect rhinos
   
  New Unesco title for Kaziranga & Manas 
    A STAFF REPORTER                  Manas National Park: Picture perfect   Guwahati, July 27: So what if rhinos continue to be poached in Kaziranga and Manas has yet to fully recover from the onslaught by militants in the nineties? 
  Unesco has just included both national parks in its list of World Heritage Biodiversity Sites, projecting them as role models for biodiversity hotspots across the globe.
  Kaziranga, home to the world’s largest population of the critically endangered one-horned rhino, and Manas, a spectacular combination of wildlife habitat and picture-perfect landscape, are among only four sites in India to be chosen for the Unesco project. The other two sites are Keoladeo in Rajasthan and Nanda Devi in Uttaranchal. 
  The World Heritage Biodiversity Project had a formal launch in New Delhi on Tuesday. Budgeted at $1.8 million, Unesco will implement it in partnership with Delhi. The United Nations Foundation, Ford Foundation and the Sehgal Foundation will support the project. 
  “Management of these sites will combine law enforcement, community support and participation, engagement with civil society and the private sector, education, communication and advocacy and social and political profile of protected area management in India and the benefits it provides to local communities and the broader public,” the project document states. 
  The timeframe for the first phase of the project is four years.
  All World Heritage Biodiversity Sites seek to conserve the earth’s most spectacular examples of natural and biological heritage. “Kaziranga National Park, for instance, is a prime example of unusual beauty and unique habitats for some of the last examples of the world’s rare animals and plants, including the Asian rhino. Manas National Park includes some of the most diverse patches of evergreen forests and several species of rare mammals,” the document states. 
  Unesco attributes the periodic conservation hiccups — Kaziranga, for instance, is witnessing the resurgence of poachers — to lack of expertise in dealing with new thre-ats. Forest staff are not adequ-ately trained in the enforcement of laws protecting wild-life and in building mutually respectful and supportive relations with local communities. 
  “In some cases, such as Manas in the Northeast, field staff have been demoralised by repeated episodes of insurgencies in the area since the early 1990s. Moreover, field staff in many places have neither access to reliable modes of communication nor healthcare facilities for themselves and their families or educational facilities for their children,” the project document states. 
  The just-concluded Christ-church conclave of the World Heritage Committee retained Manas in the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger. 
  One of the issues that Unesco will address is the forest department’s failure to garner the full support of local communities for conservation initiatives. 
  “Local communities, in many cases, remain hostile to the idea that parks are not site for grazing cattle, fishing and collecting fuel and other forest produce. Wild animals also pose a danger to their livestock, crops and houses; and crop raiding elephants at times trample and kill humans, exacerbating the conflict and forcing difficult choices to be made in favour of humans and killing of troublesome animals,” the document states.
http://telegraphindia.com/1070728/asp/northeast/story_8115109.asp
       
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