Wildlife Wing, police officials trained on legal provisions to deal with the menace
Shillong, Sep 19: Various Central and state enforcement agencies to deal with wildlife crimes have decided to enhance their cooperation to protect and conserve precious wildlife wealth of Meghalaya.
Representatives of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB); Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Wildlife Wing in of Meghalaya’s Forest and Environment department underlined the need for joining hands during an Inter-Agency Coordination meeting here.
WCCB’s Eastern Regional Office organised the meeting with an objective of promoting inter agency coordination and collaboration to combat wildlife crime in the region, particularly in Meghalaya.
Addressing the occasion, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden (CWlW) HC Chaudhury sought cooperation and support from all for protection of the wildlife in the state.
WCCB Joint Director Dr Manoj Kumar initiated the discussions by giving an overview of current status of wildlife crimes in India and efforts required to combat the same.
Real time sharing of intelligence, modus operandi, coordination in joint operation, updating wildlife crime databases, collaboration in capacity building training, present crime scenario in Meghalaya etc., were discussed in the meeting.
Representatives of all agencies agreed to join hands to effectively combat wildlife crime in the region.
The multi-agency meeting was followed by capacity building training held on September 15-16 for cutting edge field functionaries involved in combating wildlife crime.
Altogether 28 officers from Wildlife Wing and seven officers from Meghalaya Police attended the training, which enlightened the participants on implementation of Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972; cybercrime, case documentation, present crime scenario in NE region, modus operandi, mobile forensics and relevant provisions of the Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 and the Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023.
WCCB senior officers led by its Regional Deputy Director SS Patil and eminent experts from various fields delivered lectures during the training.
The training has greatly helped the officers to understand finer details and nuances of the investigation and enquiry of wildlife offenses and prosecution of wildlife offenders, according to a press release.
