Protecting Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary: Gun licences to be issued only after forest dept nod

In the past five years, more than two dozen incidents of the sand mining mafia opening fire have been reported from Bhind and Morena, according to police records

The district administration will now have to take no-objection certificates from the Chambal forest department before issuing arms licences in the 222 villages located within a 10km radius of Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhind and Morena.

Representational photo. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

According to the district administration, 22000 people have gun licences in Bhind, while in Morena, the number is 27000.

“A letter has been written to collectors and superintendents of police of both the districts in this regard to curb the activities of the sand mining mafia in the Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary. Even old licences will be renewed after clearance from the forest department,” said Amit Bansal Nikam, divisional forest officer, Morena.

“The forest department will check the background of applicant, his understanding towards the environment and his association with the sand mining mafia before giving NOC. This will be an important step to make people aware about the environment as many people don’t have any idea about the impact of sand mining on flora and fauna of the river,” said the DFO.

“The decision was taken due to an increase in gunfire attack at forest officers in the past a few years. The illegal sand mining mafia terrorises locals and unarmed forest officials with arms and now it won’t continue,” he added.

In the past five years, more than two dozen incidents of the sand mining mafia opening fire have been reported from Bhind and Morena, according to police records of both districts.

Morena district collector Anurag Verma said, “We have received a letter from the forest department and we will act accordingly. Earlier, we used to take clearance from the police department to check the criminal history of the applicant and now we will take NOC from the forest department too.”

As many as 2,200 applications for new arms licences are pending in the district collectorate of Morena while 1,200 are pending in Bhind.