Killing for Conservation Our World

Rhinos are one of the world's most endangered species. But how far

should we go to protect them? We are inside India's greatest national

park. We are going to discover its dark secret. When we see any people

at night-time, we ordered to question them. Authorities are

evicting villagers. There is no jury, no judge, no questioning. It

is alleged that there has been killing, maiming and torture. There

is no question that rhinos should be protected, but at what cost? This is

the inside story of the Indian National Park, and those killed in

the name of conservation. This is one of the greatest wildlife

reserves on earth. The home to two thirds of the world's population of

Indian rhinos. Have a look at this. What a magnificent animal. They

looked just incredible, don't they? They look like tanks with those

great folds of grey skin like armour plating. But actually, they are much

more vulnerable than they look. The park is a huge attraction for

tourists and wildlife enthusiast. David Attenborough's team came here

for a documentary. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited last

year on their first tour of India. This is an incredible story of

conservation success. There were only a handful of rhinos left when

the park was set up a century ago. Now, there are more than 2400. But

Kaziranga's success has a dark side. This is the story they don't tell

you on the glossy wildlife documentaries, and tourists like

William and Kate never hear about. So, what is Kaziranga's untold

secret? Tourists have gone, the park is closed and I have been invited on

a night patrol. Walk in the forest in the dark is a dangerous business.

What are you looking for? Some animals might be sitting here, they

might attack us. There is a rhino just next to a! Here's looking at

us. The park is huge, more than 400 kilometres square, and there are

around 1200 park gods. It looks like this fellow had been in a scrap with

another rhino. Luckily, he was in no mood to charge us. -- guard. The

cards are here to protect him from the most vicious predator there is,

man. -- guards. And for that, they have been given extraordinary

powers. When you see poachers or hunters, you start hunting them.

Issued them? Yes. And you have orders to do that? Yes. We are

allowed to shoot them, whenever you see there are poachers or people

doing night things, we are ordered to shoot them. This man has shot

suspected poachers twice in his four years as a guard, but has never

killed anyone. He knows there are unlikely to be any consequences if

he did. Lawyers say the power and he has a similar to those given to

armed forces policing armrest. We used to sit here all night. --

unrest. The park says these powers are essential to fight poaching. But

the discretion to shoot and kill is a huge responsibility that could so

easily be abused. When I meet the director of the park, he gives me

the official line on what critics call the park's shoot on sight

policy. Is, we have to question who they are, to certify them. Then we

can shoot them. First we must understand who they are. Who the

others are in the game -- first. -- gang. How many people have been

killed in the last five years? I have the figures of how many

poachers have been killed. 2000- 2014, 22 poachers were killed. 50

people killed in the last three years, that is quite a lot? These

are the people doing the poaching. Thinking about the price of rider of

porn... We have a lot of problems. Around 300 plus suspected poachers

live here. Kaziranga is the only park in India which uses these

powers. But there are plans to roll them out elsewhere. That was really

interesting. What surprises me is just how many people have been

killed in the park. 50 people in the last three years. That seems like a

lot of people. In the communities around the park, the rising death

toll has become a major issue. Kaziranga is, like the rest of

India, densely populated. This is one of many tribal communities that

have lived in all close to the forest for centuries. They say

increasing numbers of innocent villagers are being shot -- or. Look

at this, this is the village road. Just over here is the national park

full of all those wild animals. There are no fences, no signs, and

if I was to step across and into it, there is a real danger that I could

be shot. These parents believe their son mistakenly crossed into the park

in 2013. He had been looking after the family's two towers. His father

believed that cows straight into the park, and his son, who had severe

learning difficulties, went in to try and find them.

TRANSLATION: My son was shot in the chest by park Rangers. They also

slashed his arm. I don't know whether they used an axle something

else. Kaziranga told the BBC that guards shot the man when he did not

respond to a warning. He could barely do up his own trousers or his

shoes. Everyone in the area knew him because he was so disabled. I have

not filed a court case. I am a poor man. I can't afford to take them on.

I don't know anything about how the law works. What can I do? The park

is under huge pressure to crack down on poaching. With 170,000 visitors,

Kaziranga is by far the biggest tourist attraction in this province.

These economic benefits make poaching a major political issue. In

2013, when the number of rhinos killed doubled to 27, politicians

demanded action. The head of the park was happy to oblige. Delicious,

authentic cooking. I have just been reading a report Britain by the

former director of the park. It talks about his philosophy and how

the park should be run. He says any suspect must obey all be killed, he

says there must be no unauthorised entry whatsoever. Killed the

unwonted, he says. There is a section where he talks about the

justice system. He says environmental crimes, including

poaching, are far more serious than murder. The then Chief put his

uncompromising dock in into practice. The number of people

killed started to wires. 22 in 2014, 23 the following year. -- doctrine.

At the park battled against poaching with intensity, there were further

casualties. A deep rushes into the local hospital. Inside is a badly

boy. This seven-year-old has been shot in the leg.

I am going to die, he cries. Don't worry, you will not die, it is

mother says. TRANSLATION: I was just coming back

from the shop. The forest guards were shouting Rhinoceros,

Rhinoceros. Then they suddenly shot me. The path to the shop runs

alongside the national park. TRANSLATION: One got to him, he was

crying. I rush to him. He was lying in a pool of blood. What is the

condition of the wound now? TRANSLATION: They grafted into here,

that has not worked well. Just look at it. He has changed. He is to be

cheerful, but he is not any more. He wakes up in pain in the night and

cries for his mother. Six months on, and Akash Orang can still barely

walk. Now his brother has to carry him to school. The park says it was

a terrible mistake. It paid Akash Orang's medical expenses and $3000

compensation. There was a huge outcry. Hundreds protested that the

park does not do enough to control the guards. They say the deaths are

often not investigated and victims are not identified. When people come

in, the national park claims they are poachers, so they wash their

hands on the DAX. They never looked back into it. This policy is

dangerous, because it is creating an animosity. -- wash their hands of

it. These guards are preparing an ambush in the park. They said it was

too dangerous for us to join them. Lee Park explains the high death

toll, said the poachers die in shootouts with guards. Firm figures

are hard to come by, but according to the reports we can find, just one

part guard has been killed by poachers in the last 20 years. This

compared to the 106 people shot dead by guards over the same period. The

park is being run with utmost brutality. Deezar "extrajudicial"

executions. -- these are. People are being killed in these encounters,

with no judge or jury. These are not just poachers, but also local,

tribal people, and the terrifying thing is that there are plans to

roll out this shoot on sight policy across the whole of India. Three

months on, and local people are protesting outside the park

headquarters, yet again. This time, the allegation is torture. They

bring the victim in a push cart. The victim was picked up in the park by

guards and accused of smuggling boards for a poaching gang. He says

the questioning was aggressive. Very aggressive. And with your hands tied

here, and your legs tied here? TRANSLATION: They gave me an

electric shock here on my knees and here on my elbows. And here on my

groin, too. They kept on hitting me. I was tied up, so every time they

hit me, I fell over. The officers are said people in torturing him. --

the officer said. Then he will speak the truth. I kept on telling them

that I was not a poacher, so they kept hitting me. He says that the

ordeal lasted for three hours, until finally his interrogators became

convinced they have the wrong man. Park officials called his village

head man to pick him up. TRANSLATION: What the park it was

unacceptable. They had no evidence he was a poacher. How can they

justify torture? If they discover that he is involved in poaching, we

would bring into the park. -- if we discovered. But what they did was

outrageous. Kaziranga National Park says it did bring the man in for

questioning, but categorically denies any harm came to him, adding

it never uses a electric shock during interrogation. But again,

local people are saying it is evidence their rights are being

trampled by the park and say activists, some of the world's

biggest wildlife charities, are turning a blind eye. For example,

doubly WF describes itself as a close partner of the Assam Forest

Department. They are - they have been providing equipment and Sun

City Forest Department, and survivors have repeatedly asked them

to speak out against the shoot on sight policy, which they have so far

failed to do. -- Assam Forest Department. Instead, they have

funded ambush training for Ghaz, and provided extra equipment, including

nightvision goggles. But what would you use nightvision goggles for in

anti-poaching? To monitor what is happening. And also to monitor if

there is any people moving deep inside the park. It is quite likely

those goggles have been used to target people who have subsequently

been killed. I wonder how WWF feels about providing equipment to a park

killing that many people. We have not come across any evidence that

they have been used for spotting people. Would they report that two?

The thing is, it nobody is comfortable with killing people.

What is needed is ongoing protection. The poaching has to

stop. The illegal trade has to stop? Yet, it needs to stop. But shouldn't

WWF speak out? Because obviously this is funded by individual

donation. What you think of donors would feel about WWF's involvement

with a park which is involved with killing dozens and dozens of people,

maiming people, and other allegations of torturing people? As

they say, we are working towards it. We want the poaching to stop. The

idea is to reduce it. It is not just Kaziranga, but also the enforcement

agencies. I think the main thing is to work with them. And the bad news

is it is not just the anti-poaching asset that threatens local people.

You can see tigers in Kaziranga, but they are extremely elusive. We

travelled to Rajasthan. They think they have seen a tiger down by the

lake, here. We are going to try and find it, now. Hold on tight! Go, go,

go! . ! That is a brilliant site. A

brilliant view of a tiger. You can still see it. God, that was

amazing. What a majestic animal. And it is utterly unconcerned about us.

100 years ago, there were about 100,000 tigers in the world. Now,

there are less than 4000. But the good news is, numbers are rising.

And success has brought new challenges. Big wild animals like

tigers and rhinos need lots of space. To accommodate them, India is

planning a massive expansion of its network of national parks. It is

great news for conservation, but the plans involve more than 200,000

people being moved from their homes. And once again, Kaziranga is on the

frontline. The park wants to double in size, and an eviction order has

been issued. The problem is, the villagers do not want to move. The

first elections happened in September. The police move in to

clear the crowd. Seems like this could be repeated across India as

part attempt to follow Kaziranga's example and expand. The crowd starts

throwing stones. The police response first with teargas, then with live

rounds. Two people were killed. TRANSLATION: I have no one. My

husband was the only person I had. I wanted to take his body, but they

beat me up, and would not allow me to take his body, so I had to leave

it. Then they brought in diggers to destroy buildings. And the national

park provided a team of elephants that slowly and deliberately went

through the village, knocking down every home. This is all that is

left. India's wildlife reserves are sanctuary is for its most revered

species. -- -- sanctuaries. But it is in danger

of testing the fate of local communities. We requested interviews

from India's Environment Minister, the Minister of the environment for

Assam, the head of the body that runs India's national parks, the

chief Forest Officer from Sam, and for another interview with the head

of Kaziranga. None were available to speak to us. -- Killing for

Conservation. We have heard how important it is to work with local

communities. -- had of the Forest office in Assam. Of course,

endangers Delic Endangered Species need conserving, but is Kaziranga's

approach to conservation putting it above a welfare of the people that

we have told our best placed to protect it.