Costly Trophy: Park ranger fired and fined for killing boar on “protected” territory, stirring debate on reservations
Karine Ionesyan
Special to ArmeniaNow
Published: 20 February, 2009 Article tools printable version email to friend comments (0) share the article A 75 second video showing how a ranger at Khosrov National Forest Preserve killed a wild boar created a stir of Armenian environmentalists and has led to the dismissal of the ranger, Gor Hovhannisyan.
The video (which is available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI4Nj9916HE) was shot and uploaded online by environmentalist Mariam Sukhudyan, who was nearby when Hovhannisyan was shooting (in the Kakavaberd district of the reserve), in the presence of five employees of the reserve. (The incident took place on January 22, however, the video material occurred in the Internet after February 6, 2009).
“I published the facts because I believe that the forester should not have done it, and I am sure that it was not Hovhannisyan’s first shot,” says Sukhudyan (who says she was in the area on a hiking trip). “I know at in the near future no one would act like him, or maybe because if this case other cases will also be revealed.”
Illegal construction in Khosrov forest- reserve
Even though a wild boar is not included in the Red Book (of endangered animals), as Artsrun Pepanyan, head of Public Relations Department of the RA Ministry of Ecology stated it is forbidden to hunt this animal according to the RA Law on Compensation Tariffs for Damages to Flora and Fauna due to Environmental Offences. (When a wild boar is shot outside the territory of the enclosure, the amount of fine is AMD 200,000 ($666), and within the territory of the enclosure – AMD 1,000,000 ($3,330).Besides according to the Law on Natural Areas under Special Protection hunting is prohibited in the territory of reserve.
“The head of the district (Hovhannisyan) is dismissed and fined by AMD 1,000,000 ($3,330) for killing a wild boar within the territory of the enclosure; five employees got strict rebukes,” says Pepanyan.
Still, some found that the punishment is not fair. Many believe that the shot of the forester is just the least of the violations of environment norms, while others say that there was needed just a cause to dismiss Hovhannisyan and that's why the video material was also broadcast by on Public Television (H1 channel).
Rouben Khachatryan, Director of the Foundation for Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets in Armenia, is not sure this case (as fining and firing Hovhannisyan) may help settle the issue.
“I got to know Hovhannisyan as someone who does care about nature and this stir seems to be very artificial to me,” says Khachatryan. “As for the video, I believe a real environmentalist must prevent poaching instead of shooting (videotaping) it. And in fact, an individual case is not that horrifying as the fact that many oligarchs, as witnesses from neighbouring villages assure they arrive here by helicopters and ‘scythe’ by sub-machine guns dozens of animals (Armenian moufflon and Bezoar goat) registered in the Red Book,” says Khachatryan.
Meanwhile, the RA Ministry of Ecology says that such cases are not registered in the enclosure, and that animals are killed only when, for example, it is necessary to figure out whether an animal is sick or not.
Khachatryan also separates another problem, related to Gilan Reserve, which was created according to the decision of the RA Government made in May 2007. According to its regulation, it is allowed to ‘organize services connected with tourism.’
(Gilan habitat is situated in the Reserve. Several families live there. Gilan Reserve includes Bayburd district, previously belonging to Khosrov National Forest Preserve. Bayburd, 7 km from Garni district, is not inhabited.)
“They can implement construction works here in the name of eco-tourism,” says Khachatryan.
Eco-rights activist Gor Movsisyan says that the RA Law on Natural Areas under Special Protection must have privilege over the regulation of this reserve, because it is clearly mentioned there that any activity breaking the stability of the eco-system of the reserve, is forbidden within the territory of the reserve.
A report by the Union of Investigative Journalists of Armenia reported last October that the territory of Gilan Reserve (118 hectares) was leased out for 60 years; and the construction of a hotel and a cafe started in the reserve. The right to leasing and building of the territory was given to Hovazadzor CJSC, registered in September 2007. Founders of the Company are Kamo Khachatryan and Mikhail Bezrukov. Kamo Khachatryan, 40, is from Vostan village, Ararat Province. According to the report (www.hetq.am) he has connections with Russian governmental bodies. And as for his connections with the Armenian governmental officials, they are rather tight - Khachatryan’s son’s godfather is NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan, who signed decisions granting the construction permission.
“Who builds a house?,” said Aram Agasyan, head of the department for coordination of natural areas under special protection, surprised at the question. People were living there and we did not manage to remove them. They used to say that they live there and want to die there, too. That is why we made the territory a reserve, so that the process is eased and people are able to go to their houses freely, and tourism is developed,”
According to Aghasyan, it is not possible to control the whole territory of Khosrov with the help of 76 rangers in the 23,000 hectare forest.
As for the Khosrov’s Kakavaberd section, it does not have a new head yet; it is temporarily headed by the inspector of the neighboring Garni section.
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