Govt May Blacklist BBC For Airing 'Grossly Erroneous' Film On Rhino Conservation Method In Kaziranga

The Union environment ministry has come down heavily on BBC for airing a documentary film on the Kaziranga National Park¡¯s rhino conservation method and said its reporting is ¡°grossly erroneous¡±. The documentary claims that the forest guards have been given the power to shoot and kill anyone who they think is a threat to the rhinos. Taking a serious note of the matter, the government is also thinking about blacklisting BBC's South Asia correspondent Justin Rowlatt.

Reuters

Rowlatt, travelled to the National Park to shoot a documentary on Kaziranga¡¯s journey to saving rhinos. In the documentary, he claims that the method is controversial because rangers have been given authority to shoot and kill anybody who might be a threat to the rhino population in the park.

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He wrote for the BBC, ¡°At one stage the park rangers were killing an average of two people every month - more than 20 people a year. In 2015 more people were shot dead by park guards than rhinos were killed by poachers.¡±

Meanwhile, according to the park¡¯s director, Dr Satyendra Singh, 50 people have been killed by guards in the past three years.

Reuters

Mr Singh, one of the people who was interviewed for the documentary, told the Indian Express that the BBC have misrepresented facts and quoted him selectively.

He told The Indian Express, ¡°There is no shoot-on-sight policy, only legal immunity for poor forest guards who do a very difficult job. They (BBC) have misrepresented facts and selectively over-dramatised interviews and old footage. For example, I spoke for half an hour and they selectively used about a minute. They had a different agenda fuelled by certain foreign NGOs and local elements opposed to conservation. We are exploring all options including legal steps.¡±

Reuters

The National Tiger Conservation Authority not only criticised the documentary but also Rowlatt, and the BBC by extension, for failing to submit the documentary to the Ministries of Environment and External Affairs for the obligatory process of previewing in order to ¡°remove any deviations, so as to achieve a balanced and accurate exposition of the theme¡±.

The Ministry claims that the documentary ¡°shall provide a fillip to wildlife offences, especially poaching¡±.

According to Kaziranga's official website, 17 rhino poaching deaths took place in 2015. While last year's (2016) data has not yet been made available, till October 2016, 16 rhinos had been killed in the park. World Wildlife Fund's Director, Amit Sharma told Mongabay that killings are fueled by an insatiable demand for rhino horns and said, "Poaching and the pressure is ever existing. And if we just slow down on our efforts, or if we lag in our efforts, the poachers always try to take an upper hand."

Rhino horns are a lucrative business and fetch high prices in South-east Asian countries such as Vietnam and China where they are known for curing everything from cancer to erectile dysfunction.

Kaziranga National Park, situated in Assam, has done a great job of saving its rhinos. When it was established in the early 1900¡¯s, it¡¯s rhino population wasn¡¯t much to boast about with only a handful of the one-horned animals. Now there are more than 2,400 rhinos, accounting for two-thirds of the entire world¡¯s rhino population.