In a bid to strengthen the prosecution against those involved in poaching tigers in India, the Gujarat Forensic Science University (GFSU) will organise a five-day wildlife crime management programme from Monday for forest officers.
GFSU is jointly organising the workshop with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and TRAFFIC-India. This is the first time GFSU is organising a workshop for the conservation of tigers in the country.
WII Dean B V Mathur said: “The current initiative is a part of the capacity-building process. Though WII has a forensic laboratory, it needs to increase its strength as far as analysing samples, parts, products, and skin of the tiger is concerned. This is the reason why our lab expert S P Goyal and other technicians will have sessions with the ground level staff. Wildlife crime is happening, but poachers in these cases are not being nabbed. The forest staff need to be more quick, and surveillance should be proper in collecting samples.”
He added: “Prosecution requires evidences, which come through precision. Like human beings, DNA analysis plays an important part in the investigation.”
GFSU Director General J M Vyas said: “We will train 30 conservators of forests and deputy conservators of forests in wildlife crime management. This initiative was taken following requests from NTCA and TRAFFIC-India.”
He said each tiger fetches Rs 2 crore in the international market as everything from the predator’s bones to the teeth has a value.
