The long wait for a wildlife service

The Hindu , Saturday, March 18, 2006
Correspondent : Staff Reporter
The Centre's plan to set up a wildlife crime bureau for the country to check poaching and cross-border trade needs to be implemented with utmost urgency. An emergency situation prevails in the national parks, sanctuaries, and reserve forests across the country. This became evident last year when the tigers of Sariska were found to have disappeared completely and those in Ranthambore decimated; local extinction of tigers is feared in several other protected areas. Not long ago, the nation was shocked to learn from video evidence gathered by two non-governmental organisations, that tigers, leopards, otters, and other species may be in terminal decline because affluent buyers in neighbouring Tibet are ready to pay thousands of dollars for their skins. Acknowledging this grim reality, the National Advisory Council Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, wrote in September, 2005 to the Environment Investigation Agency, one of the NGOs that exposed the trade, expressing shock and pain at the images of wild animal skins being sold as clothing in Tibet. Striking a note of assurance, she recalled the Government's plan to form a wildlife crime control bureau. It is inexplicable that the bureau, which Union Environment Minister A. Raja has said will have Police and Customs participation, should still be in its formative stage. A bureau against wildlife crime was originally proposed eight years ago, and the Tiger Task Force 2005 reiterated the recommendation. Any further delay can only lead to disasters and irreversible damage.

A wildlife crime bureau with a national ambit (aided by the Central Bureau of Investigation and fully independent of the MoEF) will no doubt deter poachers who pursue the most revolting commerce and trigger-happy VIPs who have a taste for cruel sport. It will not, however, act pre-emptively to safeguard wildlife. That task will require a highly motivated and armed anti-poaching force to patrol the forests in parallel and stop the trapping and killing. Such a two-pronged approach is vital to protect the four or five per cent of the land that remains under relatively good forest cover (the remaining forests are largely degraded or have been converted into monocultures). It will be extremely short-sighted to continue with the policy of entrusting wildlife protection to an overburdened MoEF that is pursuing diverse and incompatible objectives, including sanctioning of permits to exploit forests for gain. The forest department has an ageing staff profile and no budget to recruit and train new field staff. Valmik Thapar, a dissenting member of the Tiger Task Force 2005, has reminded the MoEF that there are nearly 5,000 vacant posts in the protected areas, including Project Tiger reserves, and the average age of forest guards is 50 years. The country is still waiting for a dedicated wildlife service, envisaged three decades ago by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

 
SOURCE : The Hindu, Saturday, March 18, 2006
 


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