No conviction in wildlife crimes since 1997
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Cases of wildlife crime have piled up in various courts with hardly any conviction even as the Forest department struggles to safeguard the endangered species of animals in the State.
There has been no conviction in any of the wildlife crime since late 1990s in the State resulting in rise in the number of cases. There are 99 wildlife related pending cases within Khasi Hills-Ri Bhoi region alone since 1997.
The DFO Wildlife Division, Shillong, P S Nongbri admitted that conviction rate with regard to wildlife crime is very low. “Even cases since late ’90s are still pending in the court”, he said.
The Forest department engages lawyers to take up the cases, but there is hardly any conviction. In this context, there was a move to hand over the cases to Lok Adalats which, however, was objected to by the department citing that the nature of crimes under wild life cannot be disposed of by Lok Adalat.
Nongbri, however, agreed to the idea of having a special court to try all the pending wildlife crime related cases.
Absence of punishment has also emboldened habitual offenders, whose numbers are rising by the day. The recent arrest of 25 poachers hailing from Krang, bordering Ri-Bhoi and East Khasi Hills is an example of the same as several among them are habitual offenders.
The gang of poachers had claimed that they were not aware of laws which prohibited killing of wild animals. However, the official asserted that they were intentionally carrying out poaching as there are several cases in the recent past involving many poachers from Krang village which are still pending in the court.
Nongbri said that even though there is no conviction in the detected cases, the staff have to perform their duties sacrificing time and energy.
Shortage of staff is a major bottleneck which prevents detection of crimes in time. “It is a very difficult task for the 32 executive staff of the division to guard the open natural treasures spreded across the four districts of East Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills, South West Khasi Hills and Ri-Bhoi”, Nongbri said.
The official said the staff have to spend sleepless nights to perform their duties and keep vigil.
“They very often face harshness of nature like rain, storm, bite of insects and leeches”, Nongrbi said, adding that the men guarding the forests also experience the feeling of insecurity on account of confrontation with the wild animals, the armed poachers and organised gang of timber smugglers.
According to the official, though the work of the staff is tedious and strenuous, they try to perform their duties to the best of their abilities.
“They move out in the middle of the night, especially during holidays as poaching and other related illegal activities happen mostly on Sundays and holidays,” Nongbri said.
“Guarding and protecting wildlife and other natural resources is not as easy as guarding a treasure in the bank. Here, the treasure is open access property for everyone with no barriers or boundary”, he added.
