The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) has finally been given a slush fund for the nondescript amount of Rs 10 lakhs for gathering inputs on smugglers and poachers who have played havoc with Indian wildlife during the last decade.
The sanction of this long-awaited fund has brought the WCCB on par with other premier investigative agencies such as CBI and directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI). Though a top bureaucrat from the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) pointed out, “The innocuous amount is an indication of the lack of seriousness of the government in dealing with such a crucial heritage as wildlife. The amounts being received by the CBI and DRI run into crores of rupees.”
Nevertheless, the environment lobby believes that this was a long over due demand and will help develop a ring of informers who can help bust organised crime.
The WCCB has also been sanctioned three assistant directors and 25 constables whose job will be to focus on tracking and arresting gangs of poachers.
Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, pointed out that from the 863 alleged poachers arrested during the last five years, only eleven have been convicted so far.
“It’s a dismal record especially with wildlife crime on the rise,” said Ms Wright. She hoped the bureau would help in tracking down these “criminals” she said.
The budget of the WCCB has been increased from Rs 60 lakhs in 2009 to Rs 4 crores for the current year.
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India will double it’s forest cover
AGE CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI
May 26: The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) is all set to double the area taken up for afforestation in the next ten years up to 20 million hectare at a cost of Rs 44,000 crores.
This is one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change whose draft document was released by the MoEF under the National Mission for a Green India (NMGI).
The NMGI will also aim to enhance carbon sinks in sustainably managed forests and other ecosystem as well as the adaptation of vulnerable species to the changing climate.
The mission hopes to increase the GHG removals to 6.35 per cent of India’s annual total GHG emissions by 2020. This would require an increase in biomass in 10 million hectare of forests and ecosystems resulting in increased carbon sequestration of 43 million tons CO2e annually.