The Times of India , Monday, November 10, 2014

Correspondent : Seema Sharma

DEHRADUN: The lack of awareness among forest department staff regarding the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 is a major reason why poachers and offenders often walk away scot-free or with minimal punishment. Realising the shortcoming, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) has stepped in to remedy the problem. Senior WWF officials will be interacting with forest staff at regular intervals to discuss the issues - an endeavour that begun with staff of Rajaji National Park (RNP), one of the country's most important forests with a sizeable elephant and tiger population. "The training sessions are invaluable as the staff gains crucial insight on dealing better with poachers," said Neena Grewal, director, RNP. "In its endeavor to assist conservation, WWF India has been actively supporting the forest department through tiger monitoring, capacity building of frontline staff and providing logistical and technical support. A strong need was also felt to equip forest staff who are not well versed with the finer aspects of Wildlife Protection Act, with the legal knowledge," said B P Bopanna, program officer, WWF India. An overlooked but critical necessity for effective protection of wildlife and its habitat is regular training of frontline forest staff in wildlife law enforcement. "India has an admirable legislation on wildlife protection. Regrettably it is often not enforced well. The lack of training of forest staff emerged as an enormous lacunae in this regard. We intend to redress this by coordinating and conducting wildlife law enforcement workshops and seminars to acquaint forest staff with existing laws," Bopanna also said. WWF has also roped in senior Supreme Court advocate Saurabh Sharma who chiefly deals with cases related to wildlife, to provide an edge to their efforts. "The senior forest staff and few frontline staff are educated about the legal nuances which have to be taken care of on the crime spot. So the advocate picks up several typical cases to tell the audience about the strengths and weakness of such cases, while explaining about the law alongside," AK Singh, senior WWF-India official said. According to VS Tomar, consultant, WWF-India, the Wildlife Protection Act (1972) is an Act of the parliament of India endorsed for protection of wildlife and wildlife habitat. Among other reforms, the Act established schedules of protected plant and animal species. Hunting or harvesting these species was largely outlawed under it. However still the poaching incidents can not be effectively restrained till date.

SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Dehradun/WWF-to-provide-legal-know-how-to-forest-staff/articleshow/45090773.cms