JOHANNESBURG: Mark Boucher’s Twitter handle doesn’t mention anything about his cricket career or the Titans team he coaches in South Africa’s domestic circuit. Having recently won a domestic T20 title, he hasn’t completely stayed away from the game. For Boucher, life after retirement seems to have only one purpose as his Twitter handle suggests: “Fighting poachers. Judge a person on how they treat animals!”
After an unfortunate eye-injury denied him a farewell series, Boucher has ventured into a territory that is uncommon for cricketers. One of the most successful wicketkeepers ever, he is now trying to save rhinos in South Africa. For a perspective, take a look at these numbers. Rhino poaching is so rampant in this region that as per available data, between 2007-14 it rose 9000 per cent. Foremost among those reasons was that poachers in Zimbabwe turned towards Kruger National Park — nearly the size of Wales — for rhino. South African police were not able to control this.
The rhino horn is what attracts these poachers the most. In fact, poached rhino horns are not just in demand in Africa, but there are buyers from places like China, Vietnam, North Korea and Russia who form a huge criminal racket around in South Africa. “These poachers don’t hunt rhinos for skin or for meat, but just for the horns because certain people in East Asia believe it serves as a cancer medicine,” Boucher says. “But the most shocking part of it all is that many of these people try and make ornaments out of horns. They are making it like an art product, easily forgetting the fact that the very species is in danger. They are in extinction list, which is the most worrying factor. It is not the African poachers that worry me, it is those from Asia,” he adds.
According to the South Africa government’s environmental department, as many as 1,215 rhinos were hunted in 2014 alone. But with Boucher’s Legacy — the wildlife conservation project — and many others joining hands, and awareness spreading among the public, the count has now come down to 13 for the year 2017.
“You cannot change things overnight. It has more to do with culture and explaining them the need to protect our animals. We as a group are focussing more on rhinos, but we are also looking after lions, cheetahs, elephants,” Boucher says of his pet project. Though fighting a cause like this requires money, he is glad that the likes of Kevin Pietersen, his close friend and former teammate Jacques Kallis have been helping him in whichever way they can. Even some of the professional golfers from South Africa have a similar project running called “Birdies4Rhinos” which recently contributed 2,00,000 rands to save rhinos.
With tourism being one of the major sources of revenue in South Africa, Boucher says that if these wildlife sanctuaries are not taken care of, then the country risks losing tourists. “When you talk about South Africa, people like to explore the wildlife. That is where the thrill and adventure lies. To see these animals up close on a safari ride. But if these animals vanish, then you won’t be attracting tourists at all. Plenty of people are dependent on it and we are in a position where even that is under threat."
Boucher’s Legacy has used some state of the art technology to arrest the slide in rhino poaching. They have among them a DNA analysis machine, which helps them track the rhinos and monitor their movements at a cost of nearly one million rands. When Boucher launched this project, support came from people from all walks of life. More importantly, many wildlife enthusiasts have put in dedicated hours to save rhinos.
“It’s fantastic to be involved in such a great programme in the company of several like-minded people. There's nothing more rewarding than putting all the hard work into something that is your passion and knowing that the people you work with and for, feel the same way as you. That is what has helped the project grow further and further from the time we started in 2012,” he says.
The all-time record holder for dismissals by a wicketkeeper, Boucher is aware of the rampant poaching prevailing in Kaziranga National Park in Assam, where rhinos are hunted for similar reasons. There have been plenty of requests on social media to Boucher on the situation in India, which he says needs a similar project. “I have a read a lot about the situation there and not just rhinos, but even for the tiger. During my visits to India I was made aware of the Save Tiger project, which is what is the need of the hour. You need to enlighten people about these things and public faces have a huge role to play in this,” Boucher says.