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States to jointly combat wildlife offences

By Correspondent

DIMAPUR, Feb 20 � Enforcement agencies of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland have agreed on inter-State coordinated action on real time basis to combat wildlife offences in the three States. They have also resolved to share intelligence and identify wildlife crime sensitive areas in their area of jurisdiction to safeguard the precious wildlife.

Participating in an inter-agency coordination meeting of enforcement agencies of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland here yesterday, the representatives shared their experiences in dealing with rhino, pangolin, amur falcon, sea cucumber, agarwood poaching and trade in the region.

The meeting was jointly organised by Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (Eastern Region), Ministry of Environment and Forests and Department of Forest, Environment, Ecology and Wildlife, Nagaland.

Underling the need for capacity building to deal with wildlife cases, the meeting agreed to constitute a Wildlife Crime Control Unit and promised to give the best to protect the wildlife of the country.

Guwahati to Moreh in Manipur via Dimapur is identified as a major transit route for trade of illegal wildlife products.

Chairing the meeting, Chief Wildlife Warden of Nagaland Satya Praksh Tripathi said coordinated efforts from all enforcement agencies with constitution of exclusive Wildlife Crime Control Unit is the need of the hour to put a check on poaching and subsequent transit. Giving an overview of wildlife crime in Nagaland, Tripathi highlighted the cases of star tortoise and ivory seizures made by State Forest department. He also spoke on the problems of limited resources coupled with armed insurgency in the region to counter poaching effectively.

Stating that the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) facilitates inter-agency cooperative work in combating wildlife offences across the country, Tripathi said the WCCB (Eastern Region) brought representatives of various law enforcement agencies under the same roof to serve the purpose.

Regional Deputy Director, WCCB (ER), Chaturbhuja Behera, called upon the representatives of the States to join hands with a common objective to conserve the rich biodiversity of the nation. DIG (BSF), Manipur, M Sonowal, led the discussion about role and powers of enforcement agencies in detection and proceedings of wildlife offence cases. He expressed concern about lack of intelligence sharing among the agencies.

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