Forest dept's worry on low rate of poaching conviction over

The Pioneer , Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Correspondent : Staff Reporter
...gets permission to hire lawyers from panels

With a view to addressing low rate of convictions in forest and wildlife related crimes, the Forest Department has now been allowed to choose its lawyers from a panel in every district.

Earlier, forest and wildlife crime cases used to be argued by the Public Prosecutor who being overburdened with other cases as well, was often not found doing justice to wildlife and forest crimes.

The low rate of convictions in wildlife and forest crimes has been a cause of concern for a long time.

Earlier, the Public Prosecutor represented the Forest Department in wildlife and forest crime cases. However, it was found that the Public Prosecutor had a number of cases to handle some of which were more high profile than regular wildlife related cases.

Consequently, Public Prosecutors were found to be less involved in forest and wildlife related cases with the result that offenders were let off by the courts.

The Forest Department after identifying this problem asked the Law Department for its permission to engage lawyers out of the panel of lawyers in every districts to represent them in such cases.

The Law Department has now given permission. The Forest Department has also been allowed to pay the panel lawyers fees approved by the Law Department.

The low rate of convictions has led the Forest Department to also demand setting up of separate courts to try wildlife and forest related cases on the same lines as special courts for narcotics related crimes.

The WWF has also initiated a training programme for forest officers to build capacity in filing, investigation and evidence collection of wildlife crimes with the intention of improving the rate of convictions.

 
SOURCE : The Pioneer, Wednesday, November 15, 2006
 


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