Other erstwhile poachers have joined the several local conservation outfits that have mushroomed around Manas, including Manas Maozigendri Ecotourism Society, where they volunteer as patrollers with the Assam forest department. "Their tracking skills really come in handy for this," Rustom Basumatary, general secretary of the society comments. "We dream of Manas becoming a sustainable tourist destination so that local people have an even greater stake in its conservation."