'Operation Kalabhairava' to curb poaching, smuggling

Task forces formed to curtail illegal activities in jungles, especially at night

The State Forest department aims to curb forest fires, encroachment of forest land, poaching of animals and smuggling of wood from the jungles with ‘Operation Kalabhairava’.

Personnel associated with the operation will keep a close vigil over the illegal activities occurring in the forest.

Presently, the department is taking the help of the members of the forest committees and the environment committees towards controlling illegal activities inside the forest.

But that has not been adequate in meeting the challenges of forest conservation.

It is in this light that the forest department has come forward to set up the ‘Kalabhairava task force’ in each of the wildlife forest divisions. The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests has issued an order in this regard. The task forces will be led by the assistant conservators of forests.

The deputy conservators of forests and the chief conservators of forests will monitor the task force activities, the order says. The range forest officers, forest wardens, forest guards and forest watchers will form part of the task force.

The team members will work in night shifts to keep an eye on illegal activities in the forest.

The mobile squad of the department will also be part of the operations. Personnel of the social forestry division will join hands with the task force in its operations, the order says. The ‘Kalabhairava task force’ will go on night rounds in the sensitive areas of the forest so as to prevent the activities of smugglers and poachers.

There will be heightened vigil in the elephant corridors. The task force members will camp in vantage points of the forest to keep a check on the movements of traditional hunters. The task force will also track the activities of the saw mills in villages bordering the forests and in the urban areas. It will also keep an hawk’s eye on vehicles transporting logs of wood.

The members of the task force will sign the register at the check posts of the respective forest divisions during their night rounds.

The Kalabhairava task force teams have been formed in the Cauvery wildlife sanctuary forest division and the Kollegal forest division. The teams have been provided with the necessary facilities, Dileepkumar Das, the chief conservator of forests of the Chamarajanagar Circle, told Deccan Herald.

“Eleven anti-poaching camps have been set up in the Kollegal forest division. The number of anti-poaching camps set up in the limits of the Cauvery wildlife sanctuary forest division is 16. Seven more such camps are in the offing,” Das said.