[ Indrajit Tingwa ]

MIAO 13 Oct: The contingency staff of the Namdapha National Park and Tiger Reserve (NNPTR) have threatened to vacate camps and go for 'No Pay, No Work,' if pending salaries for the past six months, April to September, are not paid in one go within 10 days from the date of submission of their memorandum to the Conservator of Forests and Field Director on 12 October.

The memorandum highlighted how the pendency of wages and salaries for such a long duration has affected the morale of around 200 contingency staff, including those employed under the Project Tiger too.

These contingency staff is mostly deployed in the frontlines deep inside the park to sustain the conservation efforts.

The prolonged delay in payment of wages is not a new thing for the park as it has become a recurring phenomenon as the contingency staffs have had to firmly register their issues and concerns in the past years too before the payments were made.

Some of the affected staff, who preferred to remain anonymous, stated that the lackadaisical attitude towards ensuring regular payment of wages is not only concerning on multiple fronts but also leaves a question mark about the management of the world's renowned national park and tiger reserve.

Now, the contingency staff have threatened to vacate their camps located across the 1985 sq/km park area, if the pending wages are not paid in full within the given time period.

They also stated that failure to meet their demands would compel them to resort to peaceful and democratic protests.

The memorandum also speaks of the severe financial hardships these contingency staffs are being made to undergo, with local shopkeepers halting credit facilities. The basic necessities like ration, school fees, medical expenses and household essentials are barely being managed under these circumstances.

With the festive season approaching, it has only added to the mental stress these unpaid staffs are reeling under as they have started impacting their morale, dignity and financial security.

A few staff have also opined in private that despite the long delays in receiving payments, they are duty-bound to continue rendering their services with dedication as they cannot risk being reprimanded for remaining absent even for a few days to engage in private works to mitigate their financial crisis.

Besides the recurring issue of prolonged delay in payment of wages and salaries, the Namdapha National Park and Tiger Reserve, the unique biodiversity hotspot of ecological significance with the distinction of being the home to the four big cats--tiger, leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard-- in a single habitat, is also long plagued by the unresolved issue of encroachment inside the park, where illegal human settlements exist, while reports of timber smuggling had surfaced till the recent past.

Attempts to get a statement from the Conservator of Forests and Field Director regarding the issue through WhatsApp and call went unanswered.