By Sushanta Talukdar
Assam will set up four wildlife police stations to exclusively deal with the problem of rhino poaching and other wildlife crimes. The jurisdiction of these special police stations would be over the Kazairanga National Park, the Manas National Park, the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park and the Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary.
The decision to set up the police stations were taken during a meeting convened by Assam Environment and Forest Minister Rakibul Hussain here on Monday to discuss measures to deal with rising incidents of poaching of rhinos in the State. Director General of Police (DGP) Jayanto Narayan Chouhdury and top officials of the Forest Department attended the meeting.
Training to be imparted
The meeting also decided that the Assam Police would impart training to Quick Response Teams of Assam Forest Protection Force . The meeting also explored other measures like fast tracking investigation and trial cases of poaching and other wildlife crimes.
The number of rhinos killed and dehorned by poachers in the State since January has gone up to 35 with them killing two rhinos at the Orang National Park on Saturday. Since January, poachers have killed 26 rhinos at the Kaziranga National Park, four at the Manas National Park, three at the Orang National Park and two at the Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary.
The DGP told The Hindu the four wildlife police stations would be jointly manned by the Assam Police and the Assam Forest Protection Force. “These police stations will deal exclusively with wildlife crimes and will have jurisdictions over Kaziranga, Manas, Orang and Pabitora. We also discussed various other measures like how to build up a data base on wildlife crimes, intelligence sharing and better investigation and prosecution, taking forensic assistance to effectively deal with wildlife crimes.” More....