There will be a scheme for mid-career officers, who have a lot of knowledge, field experience, held high degrees and scholarships, but unable to follow any specialization in forestry disciplines. They can avail the scheme called S. K. Fellowship.
Under the third, C. R. Ranganath Fellowship, the Ministry will support the selected candidates/officers with grants for liberal travel, equipment, to engage research assistance and travel abroad to study abroad. The Ministry will put them in touch with a mentor, an eminent person in field of his/her choice anywhere in the world. So expertise can be developed in subject of candidates’ choice. They will get peer recognition and also a place in international forums to have a voice in Polaroid debates of wildlife conservation. Through these, some of the officials will be well recognized in international arena.
Shri Dilip Kumar made it very clear that the Ministry has declined splitting the forest services into two services, because wildlife conservation has to take support from forest conservation only.
Earlier, giving details about this conference, Ms. Rina Mitra, Additional Director, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), said, “The theme of the conference is to discuss important issues on the agenda relating to enforcement of wildlife laws of the land. They include magnitude and implication of wildlife crime evaluation of threat perception, consolidation of information on poachers, including absconders, pending warrants, pending cases and trials, history sheets, investigation and prosecution of cases, intelligence and crime scene and use of district Forensic teams.”
Ms. Mitra explained that WCCB was born out of a crisis, and since last two years, it is functioning in the field. It is also a national responsibility and a steep bearing curve for the organization to learn various intricacies related to enforcement of wild life laws in the country. With small present strength, the Bureau is trying to make difference in the natural world. A large amount of coordination work has taken place and a lot of cooperation from states, agencies has been received.
Ms. Mitra elaborated the idea behind convening this meeting and said, “It is the way to mainstream wildlife crime in the entire criminal justice system. Enforcement is the sovereign function of the state; it may not be a total like conventional crime and may not be a priority area for the police and other enforcement agencies of the country. Wildlife crime does not take prime position in the overall crime situation in the country, but it is a very important and specialized subject. It is a huge challenge because of media and interest of public these days. So far, it is a localized crime but the Bureau has given deep ramifications as to what is happening actually on the ground. The Bureau has made several investigations, not only in the country and inter-state, but also abroad. We have included wildlife crime in the highest consultations and the members have been sent abroad for getting information and also sharing.”
Ms. Mitra informed, “We have a number of fragmental jurisdictions, number of agencies, looking into it and as a result, the criminals are taking full advantage of the fragmental jurisdiction and getting away from the clutches of law. We can have a lot of protection strategies which are functioning in some places very well, but we need little more, because the whole existence of wildlife is in far-flung areas, so we can not have total access control of security set up. It will be very costly. So we have to go through national surveillance as well as perception management. Media can play a very important role in this.”
Referring to victims, she added, “Another problem with wildlife crime is that the victims are mute, voiceless. Also, once a tiger gets killed or any significant poaching takes place, the police station is not in vicinity. We do not have the witness, because the crime occurs in very remote area. Therefore, a different strategy is required to deal with wildlife crime and field directors of all Tiger Reserves have been convened. They will be informed about coordination with state agencies and help them in intelligence sharing right from investigation to field investigation collection of evidence, how to take the whole case for trial, and getting assistance in prosecution, getting data base of entire wildlife country.”
Source: PIB Press Release dated August 10, 2010.
