New Delhi: An environment ministry ensnared in inter-ministerial queries has missed the PM-set deadline on formation of a national wildlife crime control bureau to take on organized gangs of poachers.This plan had been fast-tracked and approved by the PM himself after what is arguably called the “tiger crisis”.
CBI Declared, for instance, that poaching seemed to be the primary and fundamental cause for the disappearance of tigers in Rajasthan’s Sariska reserve.
Environment ministry had hoped to take its proposal to the Cabinet by April-end, the deadline set by the Prime Minister’s office, and have the bureau up and running later this year. It hasn’t been able to.
“we are pursuing it on a daily basis,” says an official, keenly aware of the deadline for a multi-disciplinary bureau which would get officials on deputation from CBI, police, customs, directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) and para-military agencies. PMO had asked for this early March; the PM-chaired National Board for Wildlife recommended it mid-March.
Since then, some fur has flown, with departments such as CBI, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Planning Commission sending in their comments on the proposal, some objecting to having bureau headed by a wildlife officer. But the department of expenditure, which controls the purse-strings, is understood to have raised queries related to the ministry’s earlier push for a crime data collection cell.
Once armed with this department’s formal comments, officials hope to take the proposal to the Cabinet mid-May. The plan is that the bureau’s ex-officio head will be the additional director-general (wildlife), also director (wildlife preservation). Under him would be an inspector-general, three joint directors and nine regional deputy directors. The head office would be in Delhi.
In all, the plan needs at least 260 new posts and over Rs. 10 crore as initial costs, with upto Rs. 8 crore as annual cost. The bureau will look at policies on illegal trade, enforcement and training, cooperate with Interpol and international bodies, create a crime database and investigate big cases.
What those outside the ministry are finding difficult to swallow is that the “topmost hierarchy will be almost exclusively forest (officials)”. They worry it could end up as a toothless extension of the ministry, minus the effective administrative and financial autonomy, or legal back-up, needed.
This view holds the top post should be open to selection, the bureau should be detached from the ministry, armed with the same powers and jurisdiction as CBI to investigate and prosecute. This is the only way for the ministry to get “a pro-active, quick response, field-oriented force”.
Ministry officials say they have taken some of the suggestions on board – but have fobbed off the one on the top post.
Maintain the ex-officio chief must be the director (wildlife preservation). Not only does he have the authority under the Wildlife ( Protection) Act but forest and Wildlife officials are already in the field – when a second enforcement agency gets into the area, it needs to be coordinated so it does not negate the entire purpose.
Meanwhile, nobody still knows very much about the way poachers operate
