The British army is sending a ‘super tracker’ to Gabon to help the government tackle elephant poachers.
Corporal Gyanendra Rai of the First Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles is among those mentoring local guides on anti-poaching techniques. He is one of a group of 16 sent from the 2 Rifles infantry battalion.
The central African country has lost around 36,000 forest elephants to poachers in the past ten years.
Rai, who has previously served alongside Prince Harry in Afghanistan, learned his tracking skills in Brunei, where the SAS are sent to learn jungle skills and evade capture.
Now he is faced with a different challenge. The poacher gangs are ruthless, and will do anything to successfully get their trophies out of the jungle. Their crimes include slaughtering baby elephants with tusks that are only an inch long and using children to carry their weapons and contraband.
The initiative is supported by the Tusk Trust. For more information about the Tusk trust, visit: www.tusk.org
