Centre's 'chintan' over rhinos

Tougher anti-poaching laws, central force of local youths in offing: Javadekar

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, March 21: Union Forest and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar today said a central force will be raised to protect rhinos in Kaziranga tiol Park while anti-poaching laws will be made stricter to deal with the mece.

Expressing concern at the ubated killing of rhinos, Javadekar said the Centre has taken the incidents of poaching in Kaziranga “very seriously.”

“Not that we have not had successes. Several poachers have been killed in the past. We are planning to raise a central force which will comprise youths of the villages in the vicinity of the tiol park,” he said. He also said the laws against poaching will be made stricter to discourage the crimils and deal with them more effectively.

The Union minister chaired a ‘Chintan Shivir’ here among senior forest officials.

The closed-door interaction with young officers has been initiated to eble the Environment ministry to become a “People-centric” ministry. Such meetings have been held in Bangalore and Bhopal earlier. Today’s meeting covered the Northeastern states, West Bengal and Bihar.

In this close door event, each participating officer is given an opportunity to speak and put forth his/her suggestions in an effective and precise manner. These suggestions/ideas are recorded for further action/implementation.

Suggestions on how to ensure people’s participation and changes in laws and rules governing environment, forest, air, water, pollution, etc. were taken at the meeting.

The Centre is planning to amend five Central Environmental Acts - Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. The ministry plans to hold a dialogue with some 600 of its own officers before it plans to present the amendments to these Acts.

Meanwhile, State Forest minister Atuwa Munda met Javadekar and submitted a memorandum to him.