‘A stick and a khukri’: Low pay, little equipment for frontline staff patrolling tiger reserves

As the sun was beginning to set on a late August day over the savannah grasslands of Orang Tiger Reserve in Assam, Dhanmani Deka, a home guard in the Assam Police Department who had been married for less than a year, was out on a usual post-lunch forest patrol with colleague Sahajul Haque, a casual worker who doubles up as a mahout. Deka, 32, had been serving in the park for more than 10 years.

They were entering the forest thickets, with Deka about 10 metres behind Haque and armed with a vintage .303 rifle. “I had a stick and a khukri. It’s all I have used for years. Casual workers like us aren’t assigned guns,” Haque told IndiaSpend.

Just a few steps in, he heard Deka’s cry. “When I looked back, I saw a large tiger getting hold of him and dragging him away. I picked up the rifle and shot several rounds at the tiger in a panicked frenzy, forgetting that I wasn’t authorised to do so. But the tiger vanished.”

After several hours of searching, around 10 pm, the park staff located Deka’s mutilated body.

Four National Parks in Assam – Kaziranga, Nameri, Manas and Orang – are designated Tiger Reserves under Project Tiger, the Indian government’s flagship project aimed at conserving the country’s charismatic big cats. Launched in 1973 and overseen by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, these four protected areas are among the 55 tiger reserves in the country.

The reserves are spread across 78,735.6 sq km, covering 2.4% of India’s total land area. In July 2023, the total tiger population was estimated to be 3,925 (the estimated upper limit) in a census that used camera-trapped and non-camera trapped estimates. This was an increase from the last reported estimate of 2,967 in 2019.

While Project Tiger has been a success in terms of boosting the population of big cats across the country, management effectiveness evaluation reports by National Tiger Conservation Authority from 2023 and 2024 suggest that many tiger reserves are heavily dependent on home guards like the deceased Deka and casual workers like Haque, who lack “wildlife management orientation” and are irregularly paid. The home guards and casual workers employed as frontline staff of various tiger reserves earn between Rs 6,000 and Rs 9,000 per month, but salaries are often delayed.

In some tiger reserves, as much as 50% of the frontline staff comprises home guards and casual workers. As tiger reserves continue to expand, home guards and casual workers are exposed to greater occupational hazards while they continue to work without adequate training in wildlife management and at irregular and below par wages.

Staff crunch

The management effectiveness evaluation report by the National Tiger Conservation Authority for 2024 found that many tiger reserves across the country are facing staff crunch. The 2023 report noted that as a stop-gap arrangement, these vacant posts have been filled by “home guards and NGO service providers” who “lack proper orientation and training as far as wildlife management is concerned”.

Home guards, like the deceased Deka, form a large part of the forest frontline staff in the absence of qualified forest guards. In Assam’s Orang Tiger Reserve, where Deka had been mauled to death by a tiger, there are as many as 80 casual workers employed in various jobs as forest guards, mahouts, boatmen and drivers, Haque told us. Some have been working as long as two decades.

Sahabuddin Ahmed, the general secretary of the All Assam Home Guards Volunteers’ Welfare Association, told IndiaSpend that 300 home guards under the Assam Police Department are currently serving as forest guards in the tiger reserves of the state.

Crucially, these temporary workers “cannot discharge the statutory duties of the forest personnel and book offence cases or prosecute the offenders in a court of law as they do not have legal powers to do so”, the 2023 management effectiveness evaluation report points out.

Undertrained, underequipped and underpaid

A para-policing unit under Assam Police, home guards are concerned with assisting the state police force in matters involving public security. The Assam Home Guards Act of 1947 states, “[I]t shall be the duty of every Home Guard promptly to obey and execute all orders issued to him by any competent authority, to collect and communicate to his immediate superior intelligence affecting the public safety, and to prevent commission of offences against person or property”.

In addition to not being oriented for wildlife management and protection, the home guards are also not entitled to uniforms and ration allowances that are allotted to permanent forest personnel. The management effectiveness evaluation 2023 report noted that in Nameri Tiger Reserve, “39 Home Guards are not supplied with any uniforms. The state ration allowance of Rs 2,000 per month and ration allowance of Rs 860 per month provided by Project Tiger are only up to the rank of Deputy Ranger. Home Guards do not fall in the ambit of any staff welfare activities.”

The remuneration home guards get for the gruelling and risky frontline work is paltry, and even so, they are not paid regularly. The 2024 management effectiveness evaluation report by National Tiger Conservation Authority points out that “inordinate delays” in the release of Authority funds by the state government often leads to delays in payment of salaries. According to the 2023 report, in Nameri Tiger Reserve, “NTCA released Rs.154.72 lakh on 27 September [2019], but the state government released the amount only on 27 March 2020, after a gap of six months, resulting in partial utilization, of only Rs.143.776 lakh.”

Vanlaldika, a casual worker serving as a forest guard of Dampa Tiger Reserve in the northeastern state of Mizoram, says, “I remember not being paid for several months at a stretch.” He has been cultivating oil palm for a few years now to boost his irregular income from his work in Dampa Tiger Reserve. “Most forest guards have to have an additional source of income. With the rising expenses, how can one manage with the meagre and irregular wage?” he asked.

“Delay in the payment of wages is a crucial motivational issue among the frontline personnel whose work involves a great deal of risk,” said Kamal Azad, a doctoral student at Bodoland University researching tiger reserves and a former wildlife biologist with the National Tiger Conservation Authority. This has also been noted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority in its evaluation reports as a management shortcoming.

For instance, in the case of Assam’s Manas Tiger Reserve, the 2024 report says, “Delays in fund release, inadequate funds for various purposes, and issues related to salaries and allowances are highlighted, indicating a recurring financial challenge. Timely release of funds is crucial for executing conservation.”

As per a directive from Gauhati High Court on June 8, 2018, those who have served 10 years or more in temporary positions, including those employed in Assam’s tiger reserves, should receive the same pay as any grade IV government employee. Consequently, in October 2022, the Assam government hiked the wages of home guards from Rs 300 to Rs 767.

However, home guards posted in tiger reserves like Manas have not been paid the increased wage, prompting them to protest in September 2023. Ahmed of the All Assam Home Guard Volunteers’ Welfare Association said they have yet to receive the increased wage. In addition to not being well paid or even paid regularly, the home guards – including those serving in tiger reserves – are also not beneficiaries of accidental and other fatal occupational hazards for which their lives are not insured.

“We aren’t entitled to any benefits in case of death on duty that regular government employees are,” Ahmed said. He added that currently, there are over 200 families in Assam who have lost the sole earners, who were once engaged as home guards.

The Van Rakshak Project, launched in 2000 by the Wildlife Trust of India, is the only accidental assurance scheme that covers temporary workers like home guards and casual workers in the frontline staff of protected areas. The Van Rakshak Project scheme provides an amount of Rs 1 lakh if a frontline personnel faces death or permanent disability due to an accident while on duty. In cases of injury, based on the nature of the injury and medical assistance required, the scheme provides an ex-gratia of up to Rs 25,000 to the victim.

Vulnerable to wildlife attacks

As a result of not being orientated towards wildlife management, the home guards and casual workers in the frontline staff are vulnerable to fatal encounters with wildlife. While there is no definite estimate, an Assam forest official said that more than a dozen frontline personnel in the state’s tiger reserves have lost their lives in the last 10 years, many of whom are home guards and casual workers.

Dharanidhar Boro, a retired assistant field director of Manas Tiger Reserve well known for his contribution to tiger conservation, told IndiaSpend that casual workers and home guards have played a crucial role in Assam’s tiger reserves since their establishment. “Many of them have been victims of fatal encounters with wildlife and attacks from poachers,” he said. He narrated an incident from 1980 when a tiger mauled a casual labourer to death while severely injuring several others on multiple occasions.

Ghanashyam Rajbongshi, a forest guard who formerly served in Orang Tiger Reserve and is a popular wildlife author, said that frontline personnel, including home guards and casual workers, also have to face the wrath of the fringe villagers, especially in protected areas like Orang Tiger Reserve that has seen an expansion of its boundaries. On January 3, 2022 an area of 200.32 sq km was added to the existing 78.82 sq km of the park, leading to conflicts with residents of the fringe areas.

An official at Orang Tiger Reserve who did not want to be named said, “The park now spans over 279 sq km, after 200 sq km were added to the existing area. Previously, the park had a strength of 100 staff members, including range officers, divisional forest officers and administrative staff, of which 41 posts were lying vacant. After adding the area, the park requires at least 200 staff members to ensure the safety of both guards and wildlife in the park.” The expansion of the reserve has greatly increased the workload of the frontline personnel as the expansion was not matched by recruitment of new staff, he said.

We have reached out to Pradipta Baruah, the field director of Orang Tiger Reserve, for comment on staffing issues. We will update this story when we receive a response.

Rajbongshi mentioned an incident that he’s also written about in his popular book Aranyar Bhitarsora (2017), in which a royal Bengal tiger from Orang Tiger Reserve, where he was then appointed, had ventured out of the park to a neighbouring village. When the forest officials reached the village, they were subjected to public anger, with locals asking them to take “their” tiger out of the human settlement immediately. Ahed Ali, a temporary frontline staff with expertise in tranquilising, was killed by the tiger in the ensuing melee.

Similarly, angry encounters among fringe villagers and frontline staff are common in cases of eviction drives. As the protected areas expand, people living and cultivating in areas close to the forests are evicted. In many cases in Assam, those evicted are people living at the margins of society, including indigenous communities and Bengal-origin Muslims.

Two days after Deka’s tragic death in Orang Tiger Reserve, the Assam state police department offered a financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the bereaved family as “a gesture of support”.

Ahmed of the All Assam Home Guard Volunteers’ Welfare Association told IndiaSpend that the government should meet their long-standing demand of a systematic policy to compensate the next of kin of deceased home guards by providing them with employment opportunities.

We reached out to RP Singh, principal chief conservator of forests, Assam for comment on steps being taken to address staff shortages, plans to improve working conditions of casual workers and home guards, and timely salaries and access to insurance for these workers. We will update this story when we receive a response.

Bikash Kumar Bhattacharya is an independent researcher and journalist from Assam. He has reported from northeast India, Myanmar and Timor-Leste.

Jyotirmoy Saharia is an independent journalist based in Assam in northeastern India. He reports primarily on the environment, wildlife and conservation.

This article first appeared on IndiaSpend, a data-driven and public-interest journalism non-profit.