7-Years Rigorous Imprisonment & Rs 50,000 Fine For 5 Wildlife Convicts
GUWAHATI: In three landmark judgments that will boost wildlife conservation in the State, the Session Court of Bijni in Chirang district has sentenced seven years of rigorous imprisonment and fine of Rs 50,000 to five persons convicted in wildlife offences in Manas National Park.
The court has given its verdicts in connection with three different wildlife offence cases — poaching of deer inside the first addition to Manas National Park, poaching inside Manas with firearms and poaching of wild animals and birds. Additional session judge NU Ahmed delivered the verdict recently.
The extremely dismal record of convictions in wildlife offence cases in the recent years has been attributed to poor quality of complaint filing by forest staff, failure to provide adequate evidences in the trial court and procedural lapses.
Data available with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) reveals that though 2,269 people have been arrested since 2015 in poaching cases, and 1,224 cases registered in various States, conviction has taken place in 126 cases only till August, 2018.
Fifty-nine-year old Manik Brahma, a forester serving in Kuklong range of the first addition to Manas National Park, was an investigator in one of the three wildlife offence cases.
“I have registered at least 179 cases in my life from Kuklong Range of the first addition to Manas National Park and achieved conviction in only one case so far. I have been attending all legal trainings imparted by Wildlife Trust of India and mentored by BN Talukdar, a retired forest official since 2013-14. The trainings gave me confidence and today after 179 cases we have won at least three cases. I can hold my head high now and I am sure the offenders got the message of the powers of the Forest department and the wildlife law. We are trying and continuing to motivate the younger generation of frontline forest staff so that they can keep the tempo going,” Brahma said.