Parveen Kaswan, 2016 IFS officer
Parveen Kaswan
Aerospace engineer to civil services
The real hero of the story was a determined forest officer from Rajasthan, who had already defied all odds by shifting from a desirable career as an aerospace engineer to crack the civil services.
DFO of Jaldapara
From the West Bengal cadre joined as the DFO of Jaldapara after a stint at the Buxa Tiger reserve.
Locational disadvantage
Jaldapara’s location is its biggest disadvantage. The reserve’s boundaries are not marked, with over 30 villages within and along its borders, which often results in illegal movements inside the park going unnoticed. The reserve’s proximity to international borders also makes it easier for poaching syndicates to escape.
Rikoch Narjari
Highest sentence ever
Rikoch Narjari, the man behind one of the largest rhino poaching gangs in India caught the highest sentence ever by an Indian court under the Wildlife protection act 1976
Veerappan of the east
Narjari was often called to the veerappan of the east in the north of Bengal for his brutal but modern poaching techniques.
Educated villain
The villain in this story was a 38-year-old, educated man from Assam’s Sualkucha village who spoke at least five languages. He was soft spoken, but so smooth-talking that he could easily convince anyone to work for him. His charm was his weapon.
Robin Hood style poacher
This is what made Narjari’s network so deeply entrenched in Jaldapara. He sold poaching as a way to uplift families from poverty. He projected himself as a Robin Hood-style poacher.
Technological driven Narjari
Unlike his predecessors, whose hunts were noisy, messy, and easy to track, Narjari used silenced guns, drones to track rhino movements, and guerrilla tactics to move his men in and out of the area. He handpicked a team of former militants and insurgents operating in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram.
Data
Dwindling population of rhinos in the park
In the park’s area of about 217 sq km, the rhino population fell from 76 in 1966-67 to only about 14 by 1980.
One of the largest population of greater one horned rhinos
India has one of the largest populations of greater one-horned rhinos in the world. With over 3,000 rhinos, mostly concentrated in Assam, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh.
Nepal second highest
After India, only Nepal has such a high number of greater one-horned rhinos—about 750.
2025 rhino census in the park
The impact of such increased surveillance was seen in the 2025 rhino census. Jaldapara National Park recorded 331 rhinos, a number never seen before.
2022 Global threat assessment report, Wildlife Justice Commission
Since 2014, “a smuggling route from India into Myanmar and then onwards into Southeast Asia and China appears to be increasing in relevance.
No poaching in 2024
In 2024, no poaching incidents have been reported.
Plan to arrest Narjari
Rather than focusing only on patrols, Kaswan’s first move as the Jaldapara DFO was to get his team to map Narjari’s logistical network: travel routes, financial patterns, old seizure records, weapon supply channels, and cross-border movement trails.
Coordination with other officials and local people
He coordinated with forest and police officials, reopened cold cases, and began tracking people who might not have pulled the trigger but aided Narjari’s operations in small ways.
Two weeks of department's manhunt
After about two weeks of focusing all of the department’s resources on the manhunt, the fog around Narjari began to clear. A relative of the notorious poacher was rounded up from Manipur’s bordering town of Moreh, who gave a crucial clue about his possible whereabouts.
Main operation took seven days
The main operation took seven days. The man who was only known through intercepted calls and code names was finally in custody.
All gang members caught
Between March 2024 and January 2025, all major gang members were caught. They are being booked for multiple cases under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act.
Recognition
Eco Warrior Awards, 2025
In September, Kaswan was awarded the prestigious ‘Wildlife Protection’ category in the Eco Warrior Awards 2025, organised by the Indian Forest Service Association and the Indian Masterminds. Kaswan has set a national record by securing 17 convictions in wildlife crimes and timber smuggling cases in Jaldapara in just a year.
Increasing demand
Pressure from international market
The pressures from the international market are too high to resist. The rhino horn trade has an entrenched network between India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, and China. The risk is high, but the reward is sweet. A kilogram of rhino horn fetches over a crore in the international market.
For stimulating sexual desire
The demand for these horns usually comes from China, where they are considered an aphrodisiac (stimulating sexual desire) and used in traditional medicine. Print
