If he is as sincere as he sounds, and we would certainly like to believe so, he deserves the highest accolades not only for working tirelessly in the field of rhino conservation but also for bringing out a work as fearless and accurate as this one. [break]
Based on his four-year stint as an employee of Chitwan National Park, Kunwar has laid bare for uninitiated readers the filthy world of poaching – its intricacies and tribulations, the praiseworthy accomplishments against it, and the inevitable as well as rampant corruption it has given birth to.
The memoir, presented in a direct first-person account, begins seven years ago when the author is appointed as an assistant warden in Chitwan National Park.
Inexperienced in this field but determined to work for the protection of rhinos, Kunwar and his colleagues run one operation after another, successfully capturing many involved in this monstrous business. The rest of his work is devoted to such thrilling, shocking, and highly frustrating accounts of trying to put a lid on the wildlife trade.
For those readers who have heard vaguely about poaching and are interested in it but do not have a clear idea of its internalities as it is a subject kept under wraps, this work is a treasure mine.
Kunwar has deliberately involved readers so that they follow him from one mission to another as he gets tipped about criminals, dogs them resolutely, and sometimes captures them under heroic circumstances.
His efforts to collaborate with spies, using the risky method of poacher-against-a-poacher, and other such repeated pains to garner better funding and support for wildlife conservation also form a large part of the work.
Every single date, incident and dialogue, right up to the customary, “Have you eaten?” greetings have been faithfully reproduced by Kunwar.
And this is where the author has lost his footing. He is probably an excellent oral narrator, and no doubt his observation and recording skills have proven highly beneficial for legal purposes, but this does not make him a good writer.
His weakness is that in his zeal to not miss out on any detail, he becomes an overeager child who feels it is his duty to provide us with the dullest details, however negligibly relevant.
This may be information on the lyrics of a folksong sung by an alleged criminal, whether he drank Coca Cola or beer, whether they captured a criminal by using an office vehicle or a taxi, his former trysts in discos.
One dialogue, that of delivering the statutory warning to a criminal, has been reproduced more than a dozen times, and it is tedious to go through it again and again.
There is also something lacking in the writing style of the author. Rapid fire may be necessary in a work of non-fiction, but there is no effort to tone it down into easy reading. It is highly tiring, as one incident is breathlessly succeeded by another.
The author frequently and abruptly belts out the names of characters which he may be intimate with but which the reader has got very little time to get introduced to, so that it turns into a confusing gaggle.
Another writing style that lets down the author is his unfamiliarity with transitions. Whether it is between paragraphs or incidents, there is only a weak connection. To give him credit, the author does try to relate them sometimes, but otherwise, he just seems to be presenting to us carefully scripted and preserved notes of random events.
He talks of a rhino operation and then his marriage and an award in the same breath. Even the most loyal readers will have difficulties in following his chain of thoughts which jump from his education to beer-drinking tendencies to infidel spies and conjugal relations in a single paragraph.
But one needs to overlook these weaknesses and focus on the informative value of the work, which is tremendous, to say the least. Kunwar is, as seen above, thorough in his research. And while it is difficult to completely believe someone writing in the first person, there is something in the author that makes the reader want to trust him.
This might be the author’s honesty and commitment shining through. He has made himself creditable by not projecting himself as an invincible and infallible hero. He readily accepts his weaknesses, is straightforward and acknowledges the role of other colleagues at every step.
He boldly exposes tales of corruption, such as a poacher being released after an official feasted with the convict’s brother-in-law, or a judge declaring a poacher not guilty even after adequate evidence against him, after they have gone through such pains to capture him.
He writes about off-the-beat incidents like a father-in-law helping to capture his own son-in-law, or using chili powder as ammunition. And then he also discusses chilling events where co-poachers bury alive an injured poacher fearing capture or how three generations of men regard poaching as their rightful occupation.
The author comes across as an idealistic person, so much so that he expects a Lama, the friend of a poacher, to speak the truth as a holy man, but feels “let down” when he is deceived.
This endearing quality of his is also reflected in his dowry-free marriage, his willingness to confess his personal demons and failures, and the constant humanity he displays for the families of the criminals even in critical conditions.
In fact, he is so sincere when he says, “A thief never stays put waiting for us,” that he brings a smile to our faces. He faces endless tribulations in his job and is finally jailed by those whom he has exposed, and this final incident, of his hard work being used against him, is a gruesome one.
It is natural that if all one gets is a prison sentence after fulfilling one’s duties so faithfully, there is a lot of frustration and depression. The pressure, omnipresent stress and terror can only be imagined – yet Kunwar has taken strength from these very setbacks to bring out this work. And for this, he is a hero.
There is, however, reason to fear for his safety and security. He has ruffled the feathers of several well-placed people in the work, some of them of international repute. It is also maddening that even after the names have been spelled out so clearly, along with proof, these “respectable” poachers stroll in the open with abandon.
It is a pathetic condition, and Kunwar knows it, but he says, “Even if a single tree is saved, if I am imparted pain and humiliation, then this sorrow is acceptable to me.”
Writing problems there may be a galore, but in a single word, this is a good book – with good intentions. A realistic and almost word-for-word description of the nauseating world of animal trade is worth reading by every patriot and environment lover.
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