The Forest Department has filed the proposal for setting-up of State Wildlife Crime Bureau early this year. It is pending approval before the Government, said Principal Chief Conservator of Forests A K Verma. The Bureau would work in conjunction with the CID Forest and State Forest Department, he added.

“The Crime Bureau would be a single window agency for all forest related crimes; from intelligence sharing to arresting the accused, seizing property, controlling poaching, attending the court and verifying the authenticity of the tiger pelts and other animal products, etc by its forensic cell,” he said.

Tie-up
“The Bureau will have a tie-up with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, for creating scientific data base for the wildlife in the State. We seize a lot of pelts and animal products, which often are fake. We want to have a scientific database of wildlife so that we can compare them with what we seize. It will help us, not only in controlling crime, but also in having the right figures of the wildlife population.

Also, with sandalwood becoming more and more scarce, it’s imperative that we have have tight control to check its misuse,” said Mr Verma.

Forest CID cell
As of now the State has a Forest CID cell and the Forest Department, which work together in sharing Intelligence and controlling crime. “The number of cases booked for violation of forest and wildlife rules are increasing by the day. After Veerappan, many splinter gangs have surfaced in the forests of Karnataka, who are into poaching. Also, the price of timber in the last few years has hit the roof hence it is necessary to have a stringent monitoring and implementing authority,” said the officer.

The Bureau will be headed either by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) or PCCF (Wildlife) and comprise police and forest officers. It will be headquartered in Bangalore. “We don’t require a large number of funds since we will be using the services of other government organisations. We would however, need logistic support,” he added.