From Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI:About sixty field staff of the forest department from all the five territorial divisions under Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) participated in a legal orientation workshop organized by Aaranyak in collaboration with the forest department of the BTC at Kokrajhar on Wednesday.
Aaranyak is a prominent NOG working in the fuled of bio-diversity conservation in the Northeast India since 1989. It is also a member of the IUCN and recognised as an industrialand scientofic orgnisation by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.Senior advocate of Gauhati High Court, Sri Gautom Uzir conducted the workshop as the resource person for four hours from 11 A.M to 3 P.M. to sensitise as well as hone the skill of forest field staff regarding framing of cases in the wake of conducting raid, capture of wildlife trophy, seizure of wildlife parts etc., an Aaranyak official informed.
The resource person also elaborated on applicability of various provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act during the interaction with the participants of the workshop which included foresters, deputy rangers, rangers and assistant conservators.
The workshop was inaugurated by Sri G C Basumatary, the head of the department of forest in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) at the Wildlife Division office at Kokrajhar.
Aaranyak took initiative to hold the workshop as part of its continuing efforts to expose the field forest staff to interaction with legal experts on various provisions and applications of Wildlife Protection Act so they get an opportunity to hone their skills.
The workshop was organized under a programme technical training of forest staff in the BTC sponsored by US Fish and Wildlife Services.
Similar, legal orientation programmes will be conducted in near future in all the five territorial forest divisions in the BTC so that more field staff of different ranks could participate.
Because of lack of adequate knowledge about law provisions, forest officials on occasions fail to frame a water tight case in reltion to violation of provisions of Wildlife Protection Act that resulted in accused getting away with light punishment.