Guwahati (Assam) [India], December 22 : Deterring burgeoning wildlife crimes that are posing a grave threat to the precious wildlife in the country, as well as many other parts of the globe, has thrown up multi-dimensional challenges to wildlife crime prevention agencies as well as overall conservation efforts because of the involvement of a global-level cartel.
Ramnish Geer who is currently posted as the Joint Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), North East India, has underscored a multi-pronged strategy to prevent wildlife crimes at the grassroots through empowering local and tribal communities, community-led conservation, facilitating sustainable livelihood alternatives, improving implementation of existing wildlife protection laws, raising mass awareness level against wildlife crimes by highlighting the importance of forest and forest resources for the well-being of human beings.
He was speaking after unveiling a book titled "Deterring wildlife crime - a transformative impact", published by the Legal and Advocacy Division (LAD) of Aaranyak (www.aaranyak.org) , a premier biodiversity conservation organisation, in a solemn function organized at the Aaranyak headquarters in Guwahati on December 20 in presence of Jimut Prasad Sharma and Dr Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, President and Executive Director of Aaranyak, respectively and a large group of senior conservation leaders, researchers, executives and other staff of the organization.
Deliberating on "Wildlife and Forest Conservation and Crime Control", Geer flagged the importance of coexistence and wildlife and human beings and how precious the forest resource for sustaining life and livelihoods on the planet.
He further highlighted various dimensions of wildlife and forest crime leading to money laundering and other illegal trade like narcotics etc. He further mentioned that some of the wildlife-related crime may be due to unawareness, while other forms of wildlife crime are intentional and organised as part of a larger international wildlife trade syndicate.
The CBI official pointed out that local community members can be of great help to enforcement agencies and forest officials in the protection of wildlife and forest if their livelihoods become dependent on forest and wildlife in an organised way as financial gains from regulated forest activities encourage to preserve forest and its resources.
He also mentioned that while he was in central India, local people in some fringe forest areas have echoed that if there is tiger, there will be forest and if there are forest human can live (In Hindi: Bagh hei to forest hei, forest hei to hum hein). He said better living conditions and education dissuade the local communities from taking up criminal activities like poaching and plundering forest resources. In such situations, members of local communities often become informers of law enforcement in protecting wildlife and forest.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, the Secretary General and Executive Director of Aaranyak, stated how the Legal and Advocacy Division (LAD) and other divisions of the organisation has been working in close coordination with various enforcement agencies, judiciary and grassroots community for deterring wildlife crime in the vulnerable frontier North East India region.
Dr Talukdar also mentioned the contributions that have been made by the prized K9 sniffer dog squad of Aaranyak in the prevention and investigation of wildlife crimes by the Forest and Police departments over the years.
The book which was unveiled by the senior CBI official, has documented sustained efforts of the LAD of Aaranyak since its inception in 1996 in complementing efforts for the prevention of wildlife crimes in the Northeast India landscapes through multi-stakeholder and multi-pronged strategies that encompass grassroots communities, law enforcement agencies, border guarding forces, legal fraternity and judiciary.
The book is an outcome of a collective effort of the LAD team. Aaranyak's Publicity Secretary Bijay Sankar Bora is the Editor-in-Chief and Dr Jimmy Borah, Deputy Director of the LAD, is the Managing Editor, while Ivy Farheen Hussain and Binita Baruwati are Content Editors of the book which would not have been possible but for the sincere efforts put in by Data Collectors Kakali Baishya, Wasima Begum and Mizing Boro.