BBC denies being BANNED from filmed at Planet Earth 2 paradise location
THE BBC is reportedly facing a ban on filming wildlife at a Planet Earth 2 paradise in a row over a so-called shoot-to-kill poachers policy.
Planet Earth II works with The Barbados Sea Turtle Project
Tiger conservation authorities have allegedly pulled the plug on the corporation filming at the world famous refuge where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Sir David Attenborough have been enthralled by endangered wildlife.
The dispute is apparently over a BBC dispatch which claimed that wildlife at India’s glorious Kaziranga National Park was being protected because the authorities shoot suspected poachers.
BBC South East Asia correspondent Justin Rowlatt reported that the park’s rangers have been given the kind of powers to shoot and kill normally only conferred on armed forces policing civil unrest.
In 2015 more people were shot dead by park guards than rhinos were killed by poachers
He said in a dispatch: “At one stage the park rangers were killing an average of two people every month - more than 20 people a year.
“Indeed, in 2015 more people were shot dead by park guards than rhinos were killed by poachers.”
The BBC report went on to say how villagers, mostly tribal people, had been caught up in the conflict.
Today, Indian media were reporting how the BBC and its correspondent had been banned from filming across any of the country’s tiger reserves for “breach of trust” in the wake of the Kaziranga documentary.
India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority is also said to have recommended to the environment ministry that the BBC be disallowed from filming in any of the country’s protected areas for the next five years.
Kaziranga is one of the most precious wildernesses left on the planet.
It is home to two-thirds of the planet’s remaining one-horned rhinos as well as 100 tigers, 1,000 elephants and 32 other species of mammal.
It was one of the most popular filming locations for the BBC’s Planet Earth 2 team and provided gripping sequences of Asian elephants in the reserve's impenetrable grasslands.
Sadly, the valuable lure of rhino horn, elephant ivory and tiger skin is too much for criminals who can make small fortunes selling endangered wildlife products on the Far East black markets.
Five Indian one-horned rhinos were slaughtered by poachers shortly before the Duke and Duchess visited Kaziranga last spring and, in the previous year, 17 of the animals were killed.
Quoting a memo from the tiger conservation body, the Times of India today reported that the NTCA claimed the BBC had failed to submit the documentary to government ministries for obligatory previewing "in order to remove any deviations, so as to achieve a balanced and accurate exposition of the theme".
A spokeswoman for the BBC said today it had not received any notification of a ban from the authorities.
She said: “Any such reaction to a report on an important global issue like the appropriate way to combat poaching would be extremely disappointing.
“The programme was a balanced and impartial report which covered both the successes achieved through India’s conservation policies and the challenges, which includes the impact on communities living next to the parks.
"We approached the relevant government authorities to ensure their position was fully reflected but they declined to take part.”