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Final Report

on

Development of teaching aids for frontline field staff of protected areas in India

Van Rakshak Division (Guardians of the Wild)

Supported by

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Project Title: Development of teaching aids for frontline field staff of protected areas in India Name and Title of Project Officer: Rakesh Kumar Singh, Manager and Head, Van Rakshak

Division Organization: Wildlife Trust of India Current Address: A-220, New Friends Colony, New Delhi. Pin: 110 025, India Telephone: +91-11-26326025/6 Facsimile: +91-11-26326027 Email: rakesh@wti.org.in Grant agreement no.: 2004-0103-001 Project initiation date: 31st March 2004 Project closing date: 31st March 2007 Report date: 30th March 2007

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PA-Staff Trained & Equipped

02468

1012141618

2000-01

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

Financial Year

No o

f PA

0

500

1000

1500

2000

No o

f Sta

ff

No of PA No of Staff

Background: India is considered as one of the world’s 12 mega-diversity nations. With only 2.4% of the world’s land mass, India still holds approximately 7.31% and 30% of global fauna and flora respectively. This rich biodiversity is threatened due to increasing development needs. Competition for land due to increasing human populations is the cause behind habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation. Further, poaching, for various purposes has been identified as a threat to populations of many wild species (WCS & TRAFFIC, 2004). Poaching continues to remain a threat inspite of a strong national legislation [the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972] in force since 1972. Approximately 4.7% of the country’s geographical area is protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (Rodgers et al., 2002) and affords suitable habitat for potentially viable populations. Protection for the animals and their habitat is, thus, of prime concern in the 578 protected areas (Rodgers et al., 2002) of the country. Protection activities are hampered by many problems such as inadequate and over-aged staff, lack of training, communication equipment, arms and ammunition and vehicles for patrolling. Most frontline forest staff lack even basic necessities such as shoes, weather proof clothes and bags to carry their equipment. Training of frontline forest department staff for this duty and ensuring that they are adequately equipped for carrying out their duty efficiently has been one of the recommendations given by four separate government committees appointed to look into wildlife protection issues (Narain et al., 2005; Subramanian et al., 1994; CAG Report, 2006; Kirpal et al., 2006). Another concern is extremely low conviction rates for wildlife crime cases in the courts due to a lack of proper evidence and documentation as specified in the country’s laws. To fulfill these lacunae, the Van Rakshak Division (Guardians of the Wild) of Wildlife Trust of India launched a training and equipping program in the year 2000. The program aims to assist the government to create a strong, well-equipped and motivated force of front-line field staff, to curb poaching and habitat degradation in wildlife areas. The program has a multi-pronged strategy with four thrust areas abbreviated as TEAM, which stands for Training, Equipping, Awareness and Morale Boosting of frontline forest staff. Van Rakshak Division (Guardians of the Wild) is currently the largest such programme run by any non-government agency in the country, having trained and equipped over 6500 frontline forest staff till date across 84 protected areas in India.

Number of frontline staff trained and equipped year wise

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Protected areas covered so far: A national evaluation was conducted through a comprehensive and robust methodology to appraise whether the Guardians of the Wild (Van Rakshak) division has been successful in assisting the government in creating a strong, well equipped and motivated field force. An in-depth analysis was necessary as this program was conceptualized to run long–term projects across the length and breadth of the country involving a large number of people and considerable expenditure. More importantly, it has become necessary to judge whether the Van Rakshak Program is contributing towards the final outcome; reduced poaching activities.

Pakhui - Nameri

Dibru Saikhowa

Sonanadi

Bandipur

Cobertt

Sundarban

Nagzira

Binsar

Pench

Manas

Dampa

Valmiki

Kangerghati Pamed

Bhairamgarh Indravati

Sitanadi Udanti

Melghat Gugamal Narnala

Wan

Dudhwa

Katarniaghat Kishanpur

Nawegaon

Laokhowa

Pabitor a

Burachapori i Jaldapar

Gorumar Nongkhyllem

Nokrek Baghmara

Rajaji

Cauvery Biligiri Rangaswami

Chinnar Eravikulam

Wayanad

Gibbon

Dalma

Tiger Elephant

Rhino LEGEND

Orang g

Kaziranga a Buxa

Sivalik ER

Palamau

Gautam Budh Hazaribagh

Lawalong

Koderma

Palkot

Parasnath

Udhwa

Topsanchi

Mahuadar

Sloth Bear

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The result s of the national evaluation are given below- Induction level training: More than half (57%) of the frontline staff interviewed acknowledged that they received induction training (see Chart 1). The duration of training received is, however, very short. Only 11% of staff have received induction training lasting more than a year (see Chart 2).

Have you received induction training?

57%

43%

Yes No

Duration of training

25%

26%

11%

38%

< 3 month > 3 months - > 6 months > 6 months - < 1 year > 1 years

Chart 1: % of staff receiving induction Chart 2: Duration of induction training

Need for training: The national evaluation recommends that training should be more intensive and have a structured curriculum sufficiently supplemented by a set of training aids. It has also been observed that almost 50% of sanctioned positions within the protected area network of the country are vacant. These are currently managed by recruiting untrained people from nearby villages and employing them on daily wage basis. Another problem is that almost 90% the permanent staff were appointed during 1960s and 1970s when formal training, specially on anti-poaching operations, did not exist. Data shows that these staff members are often uneducated or have attended basic schooling. Past experience shows that trainees had low attention spans due to the monotony of the earlier syllabus. After analyzing these issues, a need to develop an interactive training session supplemented by visual training aids was felt leading to the project proposal submitted to National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)- Save the Tiger Fund (STF). Development of teaching aids: The project proposed to develop the following-

1. Illustrated teaching aids in the form of laminated flipcharts 2. Illustrated resource material based on the training syllabus accepted by the forest department and being used in WTI’s ongoing training programmes.

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It was planned to hire an external agency to develop and design the material. The Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education & Research (BVIEER) was selected for the task based on their track record in development of training material and for their initiatives in environment education in India. BVIEER was established in 1994 as a constituent unit of the Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed) University. Apart from formal academic programs including under graduate and post graduate courses in Environmental Science, BVIEER is also involved in informal mass education and outreach activities. Accordingly a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between these two organizations. The teaching aids were developed for the training frontline forest staff. The following items have been produced to be used in future training programmes. :

• A set of illustrated flipcharts • An activity book

The contents of the deliverables are as follows:

(a) Flipcharts: 50 illustrated flipcharts divided into five parts (see Annexure I);

Part 1: Introduction about the program, reason for training, target groups and outline of the training program.

Part 2: Introduction to the biodiversity of India, ecosystem structure & components, important species (endemic & endangered), values & usage of biodiversity, threats to biodiversity and conservation measures (In-situ & Ex-situ).

Part 3: Definitions of wildlife and wildlife crime, important species (live specimens and their derivatives) in the illegal trade and various methods of hunting.

Part 4: Important sections of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. This section focuses on developing an understanding of activities those are prohibited under this act and the prescribed penalties for violation such law.

Part 5: Procedure to conduct a search operation and evidence gathering techniques. The aim of this section is to help frontline forest staff to document evidence that can stand scrutiny in the courts.

(b) Activity Book: Divided into 10 sessions, to be completed in three working days, involving theory and field exercises (see Annexure II).

Session 1: Introduction to Wildlife Trust of India and the training program

Session 2: Importance of wildlife conservation

Session 3: Overview of wildlife crime in India

Session 4: Field craft (Identification of animal tracks and signs e.g. hoof marks, pug marks & scats)

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Session 5: Field work (involving map reading and interpretation of topographic maps)

Session 6: Understanding the wildlife laws of India

Session 7: Patrolling (basics of patrolling, planning a patrol)

Session 8: Field investigation (developing informer network & crime scene search and evidence collection)

Session 9: Field work (patrolling exercise and interpretation of signs)

Session 10: Developing an anti-poaching strategy for the respective protected area. Samples of teaching aids developed under this project are given in Annexure I and Annexure II. As the flipcharts and activity book are large in size, they are being couriered separately.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching aids, a field testing was conducted and the results are given below: • Utility of WTI training (frontline staff): 54% of the respondents marked WTI training as very useful, and 43% as somewhat useful. Thus the vast majority (97%) of staff found the training programme useful (see Chart 3).

Chart 3: Utility of Training • Practical use of training (frontline

staff): A high number of respondents (74%) indicated that they have used the training provided practically. 7% said they had used the training with some constraints. 10% of the respondents indicated that the training had not been used realistically (see Chart 4). Chart 4: Use of Training

Has training been practically used?

81%

8%11%

Yes Useful with constraints No

Is WTI's training useful?

1%2%

43% 54%

Not useful Not very useful Somewhat useful Very useful

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• Enhancement of staff capacity to handle anti-poaching operations (Protected

area Managers): 87% of respondents (Protected area Managers) felt that the effectiveness of their frontline staff had increased due to the anti– poaching training (see Chart 5).Most of them felt that capacity had increased between a quarter and a half of what was earlier present (see Chart 6).

Has training enhanced the capacity of staff

95%

5%

Yes No

% increase in capability

10.3

43.6 43.6

2.50

10

20

30

40

50

% increase in knowledge%

of

PA

Man

ager

s

75% 50% 25% Can't say

Chart 5: Enhancement of training Chart 6: Quantum of capacity increase capacity Future course of action: As the protected area network in India is large (578 PAs with approximately 25, 000 staff), it is extremely difficult to ensure that all of them are trained at one go. WTI therefore divided the PA network into three categories: peninsula r and north-eastern region, Himalayan (montane) region and marine region- coastal and islands. These were divided envisaging different types of equipping needs of the staff in these areas. WTI started with protected areas in peninsular and north-eastern India. Even in this it prioritized those areas having the presence of tigers (Panthera tigris), elephants (Elephas maximus), rhinoceroses (Rhinoceros unicornis) and sloth bear (Melursus ursinus), which when protected; afford protection to the habitat as well as a host of species which are present in the same habitat. The chosen protected areas were selected for training inputs and equipment disbursal under WTI’s Van Rakshak division. So far, WTI has covered 84 protected areas and trained 6, 500 staff in these areas. Approximately another 13, 000 staff are yet to be trained in the four focus areas chosen by WTI. The teaching aids developed under this project will be used for the areas where training has not been conducted at all as well as in refresher training programmes. The teaching aids developed under this project will be reproduced in color and used in future training programmes conducted by the Wildlife Trust of India. Multiple sets of these training aids will be produced for use across various protected areas.

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Development of other teaching aids such as a formal trainer’s manual which will help in training more resource persons to increase WTI’s capacity to train more staff members per year is planned. Development of demonstrative equipment (e.g. plaster casts of pugmarks) for field exercises and games to increase the interaction levels are planned. India is a large country with a multitude of languages and dialects spoken in different regions. Most frontline field staff, lack adequate knowledge of English. As staff are proficient in local languages, it is planned to translate the training syllabus and teaching aids into five widely spoken and understood languages corresponding to five major linguistic regions of India, which cover the vast majority of the country’s protected area network. References:

1. WCS and TRAFFIC (2004). Hunting and Wildlife Trade in Asia: Proceedings of a Strategic Planning Meeting of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and TRAFFIC, Bali, Indonesia, August 2004. Kuala Lumpur.

2. Rodgers, A., Panwar, H. S., Mathur, V. B. (2002). Wildlife Protected Area

Network in India: A Review. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun, India.

3. Narain, S., Singh, S., Panwar, H. S., Gadgil, M. (2005). Joining The Dots. Chapter 3.2 The Protection Agenda. Report of the Tiger Task Force, appointed by the Prime Minister, submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

4. Subramanian, S., Rao, R. K., Ram Chandra, R., Kumar, A. (1994). Report of the

committee on prevention of illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products. Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

5. CAG Report (2006). Performance Audit of Conservation and Protection of Tigers

in Tiger Reserves. Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for the year ended March 2005. Union Government of India (Civil) No. 18 of 2006 (Performance Audit).

6. Kirpal, B. N., Kala, J. C., Singh, J. S., Bhatt, C. P., Ranjitsinh, M. K.,

Muthuswami, A. P., Prasad, G. K. (2006). Report of the National Forest Commission. Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

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Annexure I: Sample flipcharts (Printed copy of complete set of 50 flipcharts is being sent by courier)

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3

4

5

6

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Annexure II- Cover of Activity book. (Printed copy of activity book being sent by courier)