Nagpur: Wildlife crime, especially illegal trade of animal parts, has become highly organized with transborder ramifications. To tackle this, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), a multidisciplinary statutory body under the ministry of environment, forests and climate change, has asked states to set up wildlife crime control units (WCCUs) in police and forest departments.
The directive has been issued on November 14, by WCCB additional director SB Negi. Negi said effective combating of wildlife crime requires systematic identification and busting of organized networks by dedicated crime control units. He added the existing wildlife crime enforcement infrastructure in the country has certain institutional weaknesses that hinder its effective functioning.
"One of such limitation is the lack of adequately resourced and mandated institutional mechanism with state police and forest departments, to deal exclusively with wildlife crime," Negi stressed.
The WCCB has asked states to constitute high-level inter-agency coordination committee in each state to control poaching and illicit wildlife trafficking. The members of the committee may include heads of relevant state agencies and representatives of WCCB and other relevant central government agencies having presence in the states and union territories.
In police department, such a unit will be under state police CID while in the forest department, it will be under the chief wildlife warden. These units will have statewide jurisdiction.
The issue had been on the agenda of a series of inter-agency coordination meetings of wildlife law enforcement agencies convened by the bureau in different parts of the country. "Based on the deliberations, we have drawn up a plan to make the system of wildlife crime detection, investigation and prosecution more effective," said Negi.
"Looking at rampant tiger and leopard poaching in Maharashtra, effective WCCU is need of the hour as existing tiger cells have become defunct. At least 25 tigers have been poached in the region for their skin and body parts in 2012-13 by organized tiger poachers," said a wildlife expert.
WCCB sources said the move on WCCUs follows as Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 is an umbrella legislation for wildlife crime enforcement in the country, and its provisions are enforced primarily by state police and forest departments.
What will WCCU Do
* Collect and collate intelligence related to wildlife crime activities and to disseminate it to field units for enforcement action
* Establish wildlife crime databank
* Prevent, investigate and prosecute organized wildlife crime cases having wider ramifications
* Act as nodal point for WCCB and MoEFCC on wildlife crime related issues
* Coordinate inter-agency wildlife crime enforcement actions in states
* Advice state governments on issues relating to wildlife crime and related laws
What tiger cells are expected to do
* To look into matters related to protection and intelligence-gathering related to wildlife crime
* Closely monitor activities of tiger reserves, such as the investigation of cases relating to tigers and leopards
* Conduct surveys on poached animals, identify and document trade routes and market forces
* Ensure patrolling in core and buffer areas and implementation of protocol for monitoring tigers, co-predators and prey populations.
* Liaise with local crime branch and other agencies with respect to tiger and leopard poaching, intelligence sharing, giving rewards to candid informers for excellent performance
