In a move that will make wood poachers think twice before felling a tree in a protected reserve, for the first time in the country, Madhya Pradesh’s Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary has started collecting DNA samples of standing trees, stumps and logs. This smart use of technology will not only discourage wood poachers from felling trees in reserved forests, but also fix responsibility of conniving officials.
Wood mapping has been used in the United States and elsewhere in the world to identify and prosecute wood smugglers with success but Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary, District Forest Officer (DFO), Ankur Awadhia says this will be a pioneering effort in India.
“The work of collecting samples from standing trees, logs and stumps has already begun. We’ve started with DNA samples of teak, saja and sandalwood as they are more valuable and targeted by wood smugglers, but we’ll gradually cover all trees in a phased manner”.
The samples will be sent to State Forest Research Institute (SFRI) Jabalpur, where DNA will be extracted. Then, a DNA data bank of all trees will be prepared and the samples preserved. Whenever a forest team catches wood smugglers or spot protected wood made into furniture or other products, their DNA samples will be taken and matched with those in the data bank. A match of samples will make it easy to book the accused in a court of law, because it will be possible to trace back the origin of the smuggled wood to the source.
Officials say that wood smugglers usually chop off the tree bark at the point where there are markings by the forest department, cut the wood and sell it as jungle wood for furniture and other products. When forest teams encounter anyone carrying wood, it is difficult to prove that it has indeed been sourced from a protected reserve. The DNA technique is now giving forest officials fresh hope.
{{/usCountry}}Officials say that wood smugglers usually chop off the tree bark at the point where there are markings by the forest department, cut the wood and sell it as jungle wood for furniture and other products. When forest teams encounter anyone carrying wood, it is difficult to prove that it has indeed been sourced from a protected reserve. The DNA technique is now giving forest officials fresh hope.
{{/usCountry}}Sources say there is an established hierarchy in place to fix accountability in cases of illegal felling. If a few trees have been chopped, it’s the beat forest guard who is held responsible. But if the felling has been undertaken on a larger scale, then it’s the range officer who is at fault. Identifying culprits in both cases will be a lot easier with DNA samples on hand.
Probationer, Indian Forest Service (IFS) Akshay Rathore, who heads the team, says they are giving each sample an identification number and then forwarding it to the SFRI. “We’ve just started but are confident of building a substantial data base very quickly,” he said.
DFO Ankur Awadhia says that the officials were inspired to go in for DNA sampling of trees to stop illegal felling ‘in a scientific way’, after the Supreme Court in 2014 remarked on the sidelines of a hearing related to road construction through the Nauradehi sanctuary that there was large-scale wood poaching underway in the park as well.
Nauradehi is Madhya Pradesh’s largest wildlife sanctuary. It was created in 1975 and consists of forest spread over 1,197 square km across four districts of the state. In addition to precious trees like teak, saja, dhawda, sal, tendu, bhira, mahua and sandalwood, the sanctuary is also home to the keystone species of the Indian wolf, the Bengal tiger, the Indian leopard, the striped hyena, crocodiles and many other wild animals and rare birds.