NEW DELHI: In order to curb wildlife smuggling through airports, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau today started special training of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) staff, entrusted to scan check-in baggage.
As part of the training exercise for the first batch of about 30 DIAL staff, a team of three senior officials of the national wildlife crime watchdog provided them specific signatures of wildlife articles which can be identified during the scanning process.
"Every wildlife article has some key signatures which can be identified in special scanners used by airport security staff here. So we provided them with such signatures during the session. We also gave our manual to them which carries detailed information of species which are under threat," a WCCB official said.
There are about 300 personnel of DIAL who look after scanning services of check-in baggage at Indira Gandhi International Airport. In the first batch today nearly 30 officials were trained and soon WCCB plans to cover all of them in different session.
Sources said another session for different set of officials has been planned for tomorrow.
"Although no case of wildlife smuggling through airports has come to light in India but in Thailand there have been cases where tiger cubs, star tortoise have been discovered in the light. The training will help the staff to identify such articles during scanning," he said.
WCCB has been carrying out such sensitisation programmes for officials of CISF who look after hand-baggage checking and also of SSB which guards Indo-Nepal border. PTI ABS
http://in.news.yahoo.com/airport-staff-training-check-wildlife-smuggling-102800795.html (Source)
Monday, June 20, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
5 convicted in for 31 years in Sariska tiger case
A court today awarded five hunters 31 years of imprisonment under six sections of the Wildlife Protection Act for killing a tigress in Sariska reserve in 2004.
The five, however, will spent altogether seven years in jail as the sentences will run concurrently.
Additional chief judicial magistrate Himankani Gaud sentenced each of the five poachers to 31 years in jail, but they will remain behind bars for seven years.
Gaud also slapped a fine of Rs 1.30 lakh on the five.
The hunters -- Jeevan Ram, Juru, Luru, Ramjan and Taiyab -- had killed the tigress in Akbarpur range of Sariska.
Sourse-PTI
The five, however, will spent altogether seven years in jail as the sentences will run concurrently.
Additional chief judicial magistrate Himankani Gaud sentenced each of the five poachers to 31 years in jail, but they will remain behind bars for seven years.
Gaud also slapped a fine of Rs 1.30 lakh on the five.
The hunters -- Jeevan Ram, Juru, Luru, Ramjan and Taiyab -- had killed the tigress in Akbarpur range of Sariska.
Sourse-PTI
Thursday, June 16, 2011
WCCB enlisting volunteers
Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) is enlisting volunteers ready to work with organisation for natural surveillance, capacity building and awareness etc. The application can be submitted by e-mail or by post in the prescribed format available on the Bureau's website.
http://wccb.gov.in/
http://wccb.gov.in/
Monday, June 6, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Meet to curb wildlife trade
PANKAJ SARMA
Guwahati, June 5: The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau has convened a meeting here tomorrow to coordinate enforcement efforts of various government agencies to curb smuggling in wildlife.
The meeting, which will be held at Assam State Zoo, will be attended by senior forest officials of Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, along with top officers of various security forces and enforcement agencies, including the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, BSF, Sashastra Seema Bal, Assam Rifles, customs department and directorate of revenue intelligence, among others.
Officials of railways and postal department were also invited to the meeting, as smugglers often use trains and speed-post parcels to smuggle wildlife items.
Additional director of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Rina Mitra, the bureau’s regional deputy director (eastern region), Chaturbhuja Behera, and its wildlife inspector, Abhijit Roy Chowdhury, will be present at the meeting.
The bureau is a statutory body constituted by the Centre in 2007 to protect the country’s wildlife.
“The meeting was convened to sensitise the personnel of various agencies on different issues related to wildlife smuggling such as the routes used by the smugglers, to share data on professional poachers and their modus operandi and measures that can be taken up to prevent organised poaching and smuggling of animal parts,” Behera said.
It would also focus on strengthening and ensuring proper implementation of laws at international exit points.
Behera said animal parts like tiger bones, ivory, pangolin scales, rhino horns, deer antlers, lizards, snakes and forest produces such as red sander wood were being smuggled to places like China, Myanmar and other Southeast Asian nations through the Northeast, which was a cause for serious concern.
He said since it was the secondary and not the primary duty of the security forces to control wildlife crimes, they would also try to create awareness among the latter about the nuances of wildlife crime investigations and also about helping state governments in ensuring success in related prosecutions.
“We will try to set up a mechanism to control wildlife crime and bust international wildlife smuggling rackets based in places like Dimapur, Imphal, Moreh and Pallel, among others, in the Northeast and neighbouring countries like Myanmar and China,” Behera said.
Source:http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110606/jsp/northeast/story_14075393.jsp
Guwahati, June 5: The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau has convened a meeting here tomorrow to coordinate enforcement efforts of various government agencies to curb smuggling in wildlife.
The meeting, which will be held at Assam State Zoo, will be attended by senior forest officials of Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, along with top officers of various security forces and enforcement agencies, including the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, BSF, Sashastra Seema Bal, Assam Rifles, customs department and directorate of revenue intelligence, among others.
Officials of railways and postal department were also invited to the meeting, as smugglers often use trains and speed-post parcels to smuggle wildlife items.
Additional director of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Rina Mitra, the bureau’s regional deputy director (eastern region), Chaturbhuja Behera, and its wildlife inspector, Abhijit Roy Chowdhury, will be present at the meeting.
The bureau is a statutory body constituted by the Centre in 2007 to protect the country’s wildlife.
“The meeting was convened to sensitise the personnel of various agencies on different issues related to wildlife smuggling such as the routes used by the smugglers, to share data on professional poachers and their modus operandi and measures that can be taken up to prevent organised poaching and smuggling of animal parts,” Behera said.
It would also focus on strengthening and ensuring proper implementation of laws at international exit points.
Behera said animal parts like tiger bones, ivory, pangolin scales, rhino horns, deer antlers, lizards, snakes and forest produces such as red sander wood were being smuggled to places like China, Myanmar and other Southeast Asian nations through the Northeast, which was a cause for serious concern.
He said since it was the secondary and not the primary duty of the security forces to control wildlife crimes, they would also try to create awareness among the latter about the nuances of wildlife crime investigations and also about helping state governments in ensuring success in related prosecutions.
“We will try to set up a mechanism to control wildlife crime and bust international wildlife smuggling rackets based in places like Dimapur, Imphal, Moreh and Pallel, among others, in the Northeast and neighbouring countries like Myanmar and China,” Behera said.
Source:http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110606/jsp/northeast/story_14075393.jsp
Nearly 200 tigers fell prey to poaching in last 12 years
Nearly 200 tigers were killed by poachers in and around various forest reserves in the country, in the last 12 years, news that points out the danger that the national animal faces in its habitat.
Besides, 250 wild cats died of natural causes including old age, in fighting, starvation, road and rail accidents, electrocution and weakness during this period.
According to an RTI reply from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, 447 wild cats were reportedly found dead between 1999 and March 2011 in and around a number of natural habitats for tigers, of which 197 were poached.
The ministry also noted that poaching was the major cause behind disappearance of tigers from Sariska and Panna reserves.
“The cases of local extinction of tigers were reported in Sariska, Rajasthan (2005) and Panna, Madhya Pradesh (2008). As reported, poaching of tigers was the major cause of their extinction,” National Tiger Conservation Authority under the MoEF said in reply to an RTI query filed by PTI.
A highest of 36 each tigers were poached in 2001 and 2002, followed by 24 each in 1999 and in 2010, it said. Two tigers were found to be killed in poaching between January and March 17 this year, the reply said.
Whereas 20 wild cats were killed in 2003, 17 in 2009, 10 in 2007, nine each in 2000 and 2008, and five fell prey to hunters in 2006, it said.
The ministry, however, did not give details of action taken reports in the cases of poaching, saying that concerned state governments were the custodian of information.
source:http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article2079069.ece
Besides, 250 wild cats died of natural causes including old age, in fighting, starvation, road and rail accidents, electrocution and weakness during this period.
According to an RTI reply from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, 447 wild cats were reportedly found dead between 1999 and March 2011 in and around a number of natural habitats for tigers, of which 197 were poached.
The ministry also noted that poaching was the major cause behind disappearance of tigers from Sariska and Panna reserves.
“The cases of local extinction of tigers were reported in Sariska, Rajasthan (2005) and Panna, Madhya Pradesh (2008). As reported, poaching of tigers was the major cause of their extinction,” National Tiger Conservation Authority under the MoEF said in reply to an RTI query filed by PTI.
A highest of 36 each tigers were poached in 2001 and 2002, followed by 24 each in 1999 and in 2010, it said. Two tigers were found to be killed in poaching between January and March 17 this year, the reply said.
Whereas 20 wild cats were killed in 2003, 17 in 2009, 10 in 2007, nine each in 2000 and 2008, and five fell prey to hunters in 2006, it said.
The ministry, however, did not give details of action taken reports in the cases of poaching, saying that concerned state governments were the custodian of information.
source:http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article2079069.ece
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