Paramilitary forces will now hunt for poachers

The response to the offer made by Environment Minister T R Balu during a day long meeting with environment ministers of various states has been overwhelming. Madhya Pradesh has already asked for forces for its famed Bandhavgarh and Kanha parks. Rajasthan has followed suit and Bihar wants official gunmen to weed out criminals from its Balmik National Park.

Justifying the action, Additional Inspector General (Forest) in the Union Ministry, S C Sharma, told The Indian Express that it was time to uphold the “supremacy of law in our precious forests”.

New Delhi, incidentally, has identified a number of parks which have fallen prey to poachers, timber mafia, naxalites and militants and is keen to dispatch these forces there at the earliest. Among the parks/sanctuaries are Manas and Kaziranga in Assam (where the writ of militant organisations run unchallenged), Indravati in MP (so much are the naxalites in control of the place that even a majority of forest staff lives outside the park) and forest stretches bordering Karnataka and Tamil Nadu where Veerappan and his gang of sandalwood smugglers call the shots.

Another decision taken by the Union Ministry involves setting up of forest police stations. The Union Home Ministry has already been consulted on this and talks are on with the Law Ministry to make necessary changes in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

The situation, as of now, is this: Any forest official opening fire on poachers is bound — under the existing law — to explain his conduct to the court. Thus, in many a long-drawn legal battles, the official who often fights not one but the entire well-connected gang of criminals ends up as an accused. By the last count, disclose Ministry officials, over 100 forest officials throughout the country were involved in costly litigation to defend their action in their own territory. Costly because they themselves have to arrange for their lawyers — thanks to another irksome clause in the existing laws.

All this could change now. Says Sharma: “The whole idea of the move behind forest police stations is to provide legal immunity to forest department to defend its turf. Our talks with the Union Law Ministry are taking a conclusive shape in this direction.” Another big advantage of setting up such stations, it is argued, is wildlife criminals could be arrested without involving the area police.

New Delhi has also appealed to the state governments to declare forests and wildlife departments as “priority sectors” and exclude these from the existing ban on fresh recruitments. It, however, laments that not many states are keen about the recommendation.