VALMIKI NAGAR (BIHAR): The staff of Valmiki Tiger Reserve, till the other day, were hamstrung by their lack of adequate information about wildlife laws. Now they are a rejuvenated lot and are looking forward to using their knowledge in effectively dealing with wildlife crime.The men in question were a group of range officers and foresters of Valmiki TR who had assembled at the Kotraha Forest Rest House here recently to attend an intensive training programme organised by the Van Rakshak Project of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) under the aegis of its Wild Aid Programme.

This VRP training programme was the first time that one of such kind has been held in Bihar. The workshop assumes significance in view of the fact that Valmiki TR is a critical tiger habitat spread over an area of over 880 sq km in the northwest extreme of West Champaran district of

the state. Infrastructural facilities here are not worth writing home about and the staff are ill-equipped to look into the management of the tiger reserve.

In all, there were 20 range officers and foresters who attended the training module. The Chief Wildlife Warden of Bihar, Mr Bashir Ahmed Khan, the Field Director of Valmiki Tiger Reserve, Mr DK Shukla, the Divisional Forest Officer – II, Mr AK Dwivedi, and the Divisional Forest Officer – I, Mr B P Sinha, and Assistant Conservator of Forests, Mr Nagendra Chowdhury, also attended the workshop.

Mr Sudhir Mishra, Legal Advisor with WTI who has conducted more than 30 similar workshops elsewhere in the country prior to this one, admitted that the participants had little clue about legal provisions meant to safeguard forests and wildlife. “Their ideas on how to go about litigations was negligible,” he said.

For instance, forest officials of Valmiki TR like their counterparts in many places in the country are habituated in using Sections 9 and 51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act in trying to prosecute offenders. Mr Mishra’s assertion that Section 2 too must be used simultaneously made them look at the whole gamut of prosecution in a new light.

Section 9 talks of prohibition of hunting, Section 51 dwells on penalties, while Section 2 defines all the terms used in the Act. Valmiki TR personnel realised that using the latter in conjunction with the other two (or any others, for that matter) only helps them present a credible case to a judge by spelling out what the offence itself means according to the Act.

The usage of Section 39(d) which allows authorised officers to seize vehicles and weapons and declare them as government property also came as an eye-opener for them. As Mr Shukla said, Valmiki TR personnel hitherto used to only take recourse to Section 51 of the Forest Conservation Act for seizing vehicles. Offenders would then leave with their vehicles in a matter of days.

Though hunting has ceased to be as rampant as it was a few decades back, exhibition of trophies by the rich and the powerful still remains widespread. Clueless on what they could do, the officials here have now been bolstered by their knowledge of Sections 40, 41 and 42 of the Act which deal with declarations, inquiry and preparation of inventories, and certificates of ownership.

Mr Mishra, however, felt the need to organise such workshops in Valmiki TR all over again. “The personnel of such protected areas as Valmiki TR must keep themselves abreast of wildlife laws. Since existing staff might be transferred to other areas later on, it must be ensured that the subsequent incumbents too are legally as sound as the staff now will be.”

A forester, Mr Samuh Prasad Singh, insisted on the need for making such workshops an annual feature. “It would only serve us in good stead if we can keep abreast with legal provisions and the judgments that are passed in the courts,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Khan felt that the workshop would go a long way in boosting the morale of the staff in Valmiki TR. Mr Shukla agreed, and went on to insist that the knowledge that he himself and his colleagues had gathered at the workshop would go a long way in improving their chances of being able to prosecute offenders in trial courts. He rued the lack of exposure that forest officials suffered from both in his TR, and elsewhere in the state.

But all said and done, today, the range officers and foresters particularly stand a firm lot, armed with their newly-gained knowledge of wildlife and forest laws.