CAG finds faults with Assam government in running Kaziranga Park

GUWAHATI: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has detected a number of lapses and anomalies by the Assam government in maintenance of the Kaziranga National Park and dealing with the poaching of rhinos there.

Its report 'Performance Audit of Kaziranga National Park - Issues and Challenges', which was tabled in the Assembly today, said sudden increase of poaching of rhinos has attracted attention of the public, wildlife lovers, government and NGOs working on the field.

Besides, death of animals due to floods and disturbances from human encroachment in Kaziranga National Park ( KNP) have been a matter of concern, leading to taking up of this performance audit by the CAG.

"To review the management plan despite the need for deviations from the core objectives in view of poaching pressure rendered it partially redundant resulting in a disconnect with the Annual Plan of Operations (APOs), which should otherwise flow from the management plan," the report said.

The CAG said against the financial outlay of Rs 93.76 crore propose in the original APOs for 2010-11 to 2012-13, the KNP authorities got only Rs 17.37 crore, which was about 19 per cent of the funds demanded.

"The funds allocated by the state government towards wildlife sector and KNP vis-a-vis total plan outlay of the state ranged between 0.03-0.07 per cent and 0.005-0.02 per cent respectively during the years 2008-09 to 2012-13," it said.

On manpower, the report said out of the 100 freshly recruited forest guards and Foresters-I in KNP, 73 were withdrawn within one year, resulting in deployment of aged staff on frontline duties.

"Reasons for transferring the fresh recruits out of KNP despite increase in poaching cases/arrests of poachers were not on record," it said.