News
Legal Training at Various National Park
The Tiger Trust and its Honorary Secretary was invited to deliver
a lecturer on the legal aspects of wildlife protection Act by the Indira
Gandhi National Forest academy Dehradun in the Month of Jan, March &
May 2005.
In Jan 2006 the trust further held a camp in Ranthambore National Park
for imparting legal education and field experience to the Forest rangers
and Deputy Forester.
On 16th March 2006 the Tiger trust in association with WWF India organized
the 11th Kailash Sankhala Memorial Lecturer as a tribute to Padamashree
Kailash Sankhala,the First Director of Project Tiger. Dr. M.S. Swami Nathan
Director of M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation who is an eminent scientist
and largely responsible for the Green Revolution in India was the keynote
Speaker. Ms. Anjana Gosai, Seceretary of Tiger Trust, Perform has role
as a Principal Trainer in all these Training.
On 21st March 2006,Tiger trust has organised a Big Painting Competion
for the awareness in the children in Tala as well as Bandhavgarh National
Park.
Ms. Anjana Gosai, Seceretary of Tiger Trust, Perform has role as
a Principal Trainer in all these Training.
Media workshop for journalists from
the district of Umaria
Bandhavgarh National Park, Jan 4, 2004: A workshop was organized at the
Tiger Trust office at Tala, head quarter of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve,
on January 4, 2004. Journalists from the district of Umaria associated
with both electronic and print media participated in it. The themes of
the workshop were concentrated basically on expectation in the existing
Wildlife Protection Acts of India, socio-economic reasons, if any, behind
the involvement of the locals in wildlife offences and role of the media
in the campaigns for conservation of the Tiger.
It was observed that the Wildlife Protection Acts, 1972, despite going
through its 3rd amendment in 2003, needed more teeth. First, fine and
punishments for offences related to Schedule-1 animal which includes the
tiger, should be hiked. Usually, cases related to Schedule-1 animals used
to take anything up to 5 to 10 years in the court of law to come to a
stage of probable conviction, if there is any. It should also be noted
that the rate of conviction related to the offences meted out to the tiger
in India is miserably low.
It was deliberated that most of the illegal trafficking related to the
tiger took place in centres like Delhi and Mumbai. From there, it make
way to Nepal, and finally to China. It is noteworthy that most of the
tiger skins and bones had been recovered from the India-Nepal boarder.
During the workshop, it was lamented that most of the accused involved
in the illegal trafficking of the Tiger roamed around freely on bail.
Therefore, acting on them, which would be curbing the crime at the hub
itself, would be a priority.
Mrs. Anjana Gosain, honorary secretary, Tiger Trust who had been the resource
person in the workshop revealed form a research that each wildlife-related
crime used to involve four to five persons. Their modus operandi had been
observed to be methods related to electrocution, ditch digging and laying
of loop or traps. Killing by shooting had been very rare.
It was also proposed that the government should empower the forest guards
and rangers to protect the wildlife. Instances were cited in the law where
it had been enacted that no forest officials below Forest Range Officers
had got the power to possess arms. It had also been approved that a Range
Officer could not shoot unless he confronted at least 12 people and unless
they start firing at first.
'Proactive role of the media in the efforts of conservation of the Tiger'
was another major topic of the workshop. Members of the media themselves
categorized their possible roles in that regard. Mr. Santosh Gupta, advocate
and senior correspondent for Press Trust of India, United New of India
and The Hitavada put forward the proposition that journalists should go
around the village periodically and get feedback from the villagers regarding
the impact and effectiveness of the campaigns carried out by the Tiger
Trust. He also proposed that it would be published and broadcast. The
same was accepted by all other journalists present in the workshop unanimously.
Deep Narayan Soni (Dainik Bhaskar), Rajnish Singh (Sahara Samay Channel),
Man Singh (Daily Samay), Chandra Prakash Dubey (Swatantra Mat), Rajendra
Nigam (Nav Bharat), Narendra Tripathy (Aaj Tak and ETV), Hari Kishan Bhivania
(Siti Cable), Kaushal (Dainik Khabar), Santosh Gupta (PTI and UNI), Narendra
Deo Bagadia (Nai Dunia) and Ratan Khandelwal (President, Press Club of
Umaria) were among the journalists participating the workshop.