INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightOSPAN ALIImage caption
Yerlan Nurgaliev holding a baby saiga
On 13 January two Kazakh
rangers were on their usual patrol when they saw something strange - fresh car tracks
In the remote uninhabited steppe, this could mean only one thing - poachers
Yerlan Nurgaliev and Pyotr Nitsyk quickly gave chase, firing warning shots to stop the cars speeding away
When the cars stopped, armed men got out
The rangers were badly beaten up, trying to arrest the criminals
Mr Nurgaliev died in hospital two days later.This is the first time in the history of Okhotzooprom, the agency that protects Kazakhstan's
wildlife, that poachers have killed a state ranger
Mr Nurgaliev's death has caused a huge outcry with many people urging authorities not to let the criminals get away with this murder
The prosecutor-general is personally overseeing the investigation of this case
But this incident has also exposed how massive poaching has become.The poachers who escaped and left the injured rangers in freezing cold
were hunting saiga - Ice-Age antelopes that existed back in the days of woolly mammoths.Image caption
A conservation
programme is bearing fruit - the number of saiga is on the rise
Kazakhstan is home to the largest population of saiga in the
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) included these animals in its red list of critically endangered species
It is a criminal offense to hunt saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan
Poaching was one of the main reasons why their population dropped from more than one million in the early 1990s to just about 20,000 a
decade later.Today, thanks to conservation projects and anti-poaching measures, the saiga population in Kazakhstan has increased to about
Image:Saiga antelopes: the Ice Age survivors now in perilBut illegal hunting remains one of the major threats to these animals.Poachers are
ready to take any risk as the reward is very lucrative
Just 1kg (2.2lb) of saiga horn - used in Chinese traditional medicine - may fetch several thousand dollars.I met Mr Nurgaliev and Mr Nitsyk
Like on the day of the fatal incident, they were on a shift protecting the wildlife
We talked a lot about their work, about poachers who are often better equipped than rangers and can successfully escape when chased.Mr
Nitsyk showed his Makarov handgun when explaining about chasing poachers
Image copyrightJoint saiga health monitoring team, KazakhstanImage caption
Saigas died in large numbers across the
Betpak-Dala region of Kazakhstan in 2015, with most of the global population wiped out
"I've only used it for warning shots,
never against humans," he said.On that tragic day, they used their weapons again only for warning
They had every right to shoot criminals since their lives were under threat, their colleagues say
But they probably didn't realise how serious the threat was until it was too late, they add.For many, the death of Mr Nurgaliev has become a
symbol of injustice in Kazakh society."He didn't build a palace or buy an expensive car
He could steal like many but chose a different path
And he died," wrote one social media user.My father is also a ranger, wrote another one
"He was injured during a similar fight with poachers and nearly died
What punishment did they get Nothing
They're free."Some rangers complained in private that they risked their lives to catch poachers, but often the only punishment the criminals
got was just a fine.Rangers also whispered among each other about cases when someone "high up" would arrive to hunt and how they had to
pretend they didn't see them.This time, Kazakh authorities say that they will find the perpetrators and punish them
Failure to do so would only encourage poachers to continue hunting.Image caption
Mr Nurgaliev and Mr Nitsyk appeared in
a TheIndianSubcontinent video in May 2018
Yerlan Nurgaliev was going to turn 53 at the end of this month
"He was an honest man who never betrayed his principles," said his friend and colleague Zhanat Tansykbaev.On social media there is a growing
demand to give him a state award posthumously
Some officials have already supported the call.And even this would only add to the feeling of injustice, some say
In a country where the prestige of your work is weighed against the power you hold, a ranger's job ranks quite low among government
The government, as well as the people, rarely notice protectors of wildlife until they get killed.
