DHANGADI, Feb 16 : A team of poachers led by Rampal Babariya of Hariyana, India was assigned the task to kill tigers from the Bardiya National Park by their Mahapanchyat. His team has reached the national park one and half month ago and during this period it killed two Royal Bengal Tigers for the national park.
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“The Mahapanchayat had allocated the Bardiya National Park area to my team for hunting tigers. We were able to kill two tigers from there,” Rampal said informing that the Babariya community members are allocated areas by its Mahanpanchayat for hunting tiger once a year. “Once we are allocated our area, we strictly limit our hunting in that area,” he said.
Police investigations informs that the Mahapanchayat holds meeting annually and assigns areas in Nepal and India to various Babariya teams for killing tigers. “We have been investigating this community of poachers since a year and we have come to know this that the community has been hunting tigers in an organized manner,” said DSP Birendra Singh Johari, in-charge of the investigation team. “We have found that basically tigers from Far and Mid-Western development regions are targeted,” he informed.
Of the 13 sets of tiger parts that the police recovered from poachers in the last one year from across the country, nine sets from the far western region also. “Our team alone recovered nine sets of tiger skin,” Johari said.
Johari informed that Bardiya National Park, Shuklafanta National Park and Banke National Park are main targets for tiger hunters. Babariya community members set tents in their hunting areas in Nepal and live around Tiger’s habitat, until they are successful in killing tigers.
As part of their culture, the Babariyas offer puja praying for successful tiger hunting. Rampal, who along with his team is police custody, said that the puja and prayers are an essential in ensuring that they are successful in killing tigers.
When they succeed, it’s a moment of rejoice and celebration for them, says Rampal adding that hunting tigers is their way of life and a profession that is full of valor. “They have an ounce of guilt for poaching tigers. In fact, they take pride hunting down tigers claiming it to be a brave work,” he said further adding that, “When a tiger is killed, they offer goat as sacrifice to goddess thanking her for successful tiger hunting.”
The Mahasamiti along with allocating hunting areas for the teams also sets value for various tiger parts in the annual meeting. According to Rampal, his team was supposed to receive Rs 300,000 for handing over parts of one tiger to the Mahasamiti. This community of hunters does not use guns or modern weapons in hunting. Johari informed that they hunt tigers using nets, domestic weapons and poisoning, among others.
With the information provided by Rampal’s team, the police has now been able to put all the pieces of tiger poaching and trade in Nepal. “We have now understood the entire story behind tiger poaching. How they plan, how they kill how they smuggle and sell it,” DSP Madhav Nepal said. “People of Babariya community actually take it as their profession. They enter forests and kill tigers one by one,” he said informing further that Babariya communities are found in Hariyana, Panjab and Pilbhit among other parts of India. Babariya hunters from India have killed eight tigers in Nepal in the last one year, police investigation claims.
The investigation further adds that the tiger parts are mostly smuggled to China and Vietnam. Even though the poachers like the Babariya community members are paid less, a tiger set (including skin, bones) fetches up to Rs five to six million in the main market. In several countries, tiger parts are used to prepare high quality drinks, soup and powders, Johari said.
Johari said that tiger parts submitted to the Mahapanchayat reach the main smugglers through different phases and channels. The police have been able to catch only poachers and this is not a huge success, he admitted. “Main smugglers remain behind the scene and they will use others to get tiger parts. And when caught the poachers get ready to face punishment but do not disclose anything about their links with the smugglers, so it’s very difficult to get to the root,” Johari said.
Zonal Police Office, Kailai chief SSP Binod Sharma Ghimire said that investigations often surfaces just around first level of the people involved in poaching. Getting further into the smuggling link, is always a challenge, he said. “It would be easier for arresting the main smugglers if arrested poachers share information with police. But they zip their lips,” Ghimire said.
