Manas National Park, Assam, December 16, 2017: As part of its multi-pronged approach to battling wildlife crime, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) have been providing legal assistance to state forest departments across several Protected Areas in India since 2013.

Extended under the Litigation Project of WTI’s Wildlife Crime Control Division, this unique form of assistance involves regular consultative meetings between WTI’s ‘Green Lawyers’ – attorneys specialising in wildlife law – and forest department personnel involved in the investigation and prosecution of wildlife crime. It is based on the understanding that wildlife and forest-related offences are fundamentally distinct from other crimes and require a specialised focus. Forest department personnel in general lack the requisite skill and training in filing cases related to wildlife crime in a comprehensive and error-free manner. The resulting lacunas related to legal procedure and documentation contribute to the abysmally low conviction rate in wildlife crime cases nationwide. IFAW-WTI’s legal assistance seeks to address this issue at its very root.

Manas National Park recently became the latest Protected Area to be covered under the Litigation Project, following a meeting held on December 9. The meeting was chaired by the Field Director Mr HK Sharma and included retired forest officer Mr Bhupen Talukdar, IFAW-WTI counsel Mr Mukesh Chachan, Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) Mr Abbas Dewan and the Head of IFAW-WTI’s Greater Manas Recovery Project Dr Bhaskar Chowdhury, with range officers of the park also in attendance.

IFAW-WTI has been assisting the park management in training frontline staff in wildlife crime prevention since 2013, under the Guardians of Wild project. All members of the park’s cadre of frontline staff have undergone one training workshop and two refresher workshops as part of their training cycle. The legal support being provided henceforth is an extension to this training, where the park management will be provided the assistance of a qualified lawyer who will guide them through court procedures and help draft court filings.

During the meeting on December 9, ACF Mr Abbas, who is also a qualified lawyer, presented a complete analysis of legal issues and trial court cases registered by the park management. IFAW-WTI’s legal team assessed the current caseload to ascertain the prominent legal drawbacks faced by the enforcement staff. The assessment highlighted common lapses in court filings and outlined corrective measures to be taken in the coming days. The group discussed the right approach for future reporting of cases and a strategy was devised to move forward.

Manas Field Director Mr HK Sharma welcomed IFAW-WTI’s legal initiative: “Fighting wildlife crime in this landscape is an important part of securing a safe future for the park and its wildlife. Manas has seen a number of bad years with the conflict that happened in the past, which brought the park to the brink. Against tremendous odds, with the committed efforts of the government and forest officials and the support of organisations such as IFAW-WTI, the park has bounced back. Controlling wildlife crime, both at the ground level and in court to bring wildlife criminals to justice, is very important at this stage”, he said.

The legendary retired forest officer Bhupen Talukdar, who served with the Assam Forest Department for over four decades, will be working closely with IFAW-WTI’s legal counsel in training forest officials. During the meeting, Mr Talukdar advised the young officers to learn how to use the powerful provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act to ensure that hunters and wildlife traders are brought to justice – while ensuring that a strict code of conduct and ethics is followed.

Manas is the sixth Tiger Reserve in India to be covered under the Litigation Project. “Our lawyers have provided advice in more than 300 trial court cases registered across the Protected Areas we assist under the project”, said Jose Louies, Chief of WTI’s Wildlife Crime Control Division. “The success we have achieved in the form of convictions, rejection of bail applications, securing of arrest warrants etc is very encouraging in our battle against wildlife crime across India. More important, the increase that we’ve seen in the confidence of frontline staff in courtrooms, and the watertight documentation that is now being prepared, is what inspires us to take this forward”, he said.