IFAW-WTI hosts pioneering training to enhance wildlife conviction rates

“One of the major reasons for wildlife cases extending for years (or decades) or even offenders going scot-free is weak offense reports,” said Vivek Menon, Executive Director – WTI and Regional Head – South Asia for IFAW.

Seventeen  participants of six reserve forests of Assam along with the Kaziranga National Park Director and other senior forest officials, trainers and IFAW-WTI team members during the closing ceremony of the 10 day long workshop on Advanced Enforcement Training on Offense Report Writing. Photo: Subhamoy Bhattacharjee/WTI

 An offense report is the first report prepared by officials at the crime scene. “This forms the pillar on which an entire case is fought. If this foundation is weak, the entire structure turns against the prosecutor,” he added.

The workshop was held in collaboration with the Assam Forest Department at Kaziranga National Park, under IFAW-WTI’s Van Rakshak (Guardians of the Wild) Project. From the seventeen frontline forest officials who attended the workshop – 7 were from Kaziranga National Park, 4 from Manas National Park, 2 each from Pobitora and Bura Chapori wildlife sanctuaries, 1 each from Amchang wildlife sanctuary and Pobitora wildlife sanctuary.

Samarjyoti Boro, a Forester 1 from Manas National Park feels that the training has clarified many doubts on offense report writing, “I will discuss about this new knowledge with my colleagues in Manas and try to implement what I learnt here while executing offense reports against any wildlife crime.”

The training was carried out under the guidance of senior conservationist Mr Bhupendra Nath Talukdar. The training team comprised of two senior lawyers, apart from IFAW-WTI wildlife experts. The involvement  and contribution of  Ritesh Bhattacharjee, former CCF of Assam Forest Department has encouraged the participants to understand the relationship between the forest and community for the larger interest of wildlife conservation.

 “This training is very helpful and essential for our frontline staff. It is basically a skill-will combination which will enhance the conviction rate among the specially trained forest field officials while filing the offence report on any wildlife crime”, said S K Seal Sarma, DFO, Kaziranga National Park.

This ten days long ‘Advanced Enforcement Training for Offense Report Writing workshop initiated by IFAW-WTI was first of its kind in the conservation history of  the two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Kaziranga and Manas National Park. Over the past ten days, the seventeen forest officials underwent intensive training on crime scene investigation, methods of seizures and arrest, Indian wildlife laws, their interpretation and effective use to prepare and file legally correct papers in court.

Dr Bhaskar Choudhury, Regional Head (Assam) & Head Vet NE, WTI said, “Training on enforcement for frontline staff is a critical need to ensure proper implementation of the WPA. This has been done by many organizations at various capacities for past 10 years or so in Assam routinely. However, the results are not reflecting the effort. This training was conceptualized keeping in mind this fact. Every range and forest divisional HQ has a few identified individuals who has been writing offense report in Assam, this training picked them up and put them in an environment for 10 long days where their capacity was build specially on this skill. When they go out, an immediate result will be achieved by improving the standard of the offense report drawn in two tiger reserves, one National Park and two important wildlife sanctuaries of Assam”.

He further added, “The heartening fact of the training was seen today when two forest staffs had legal arguments with their Chief Conservator of Forest on Wildlife Protection Act. This shows the confidence of the trainees on their knowledge and skill gained during the training. I thank IFAW for making this possible and it will be interesting to see how this is reflected in the offense report of these five areas and how much conviction is achieved through this in next six months to a year’s time.”

R M Singh, Additional Director General of Police and Chief of Special Task Force, Assam interacted with the participating forest officials during Advanced Enforcement Training on Offense Report writing by IFAW-WTI at Bagori Range of Kaziranga National Park. The super cop has worked on strengthening the relationship between Police and Forest department to encounter wildlife crime for the protection of reserve forests in Assam. He also boosted the moral of the forest officials by sharing different field experiences with them.

According to Rupak Bhuyan, Forester 1 from Kaziranga National Park, “It was an unexpected training experience. Though we have been preparing offense reports for the last few years, here under the guidance of our senior officer B N Talukdar we are able to understand the various scopes of the wildlife act in offense reporting. I thank the trainers, IFAW-WTI and the Assam Forest Department for conducting this course for us.”

The Van Rakshak Project (VRP) builds capacity of India’s frontline staff providing them appropriate training, and equipping them. Till date, over 13,000 in more than 130 of the country’s protected areas have been trained on ‘wildlife crime prevention’ and equipped with field gear.

 The project has also provided free insurance cover to 20,000 frontline staff in the country. Victims of accident or death on duty and their families receive up to 1,00,000 rupees under this unique scheme.