Forest staff, police to consider joint checks

A senior forest department official said that they wrote to the police department to schedule a meeting this week to discuss how joint inspections can be conducted in forest areas, such as the central ridge, southern ridge, south-central ridge, Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, etc

Officials of the Delhi forest department will conduct a meeting with Delhi Police this week to discuss the possibility of forming joint inspection teams to inspect the forest lands of the Capital, senior officials said on Saturday.

Officials of the forest department said that the meeting with the Delhi Police was prompted by a violent attack on four forest department officials on Thursday at the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary. (Sourced)

A senior forest department official said that they wrote to the police department to schedule a meeting this week to discuss how joint inspections can be conducted in forest areas, such as the central ridge, southern ridge, south-central ridge, Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, etc.

“This will help us keep a better watch on forest areas, and prevent encroachment, illegal tree cutting and smuggling in the forests. We are looking at how we can do this with the help of the police. We will work out possibilities and then release more details,” the official said.

While the Delhi lieutenant governor Anil Baijal on Thursday approved a uniform code for the officials of the forest department, assigning uniforms as per their ranks and batons, the teams are still largely unequipped to handle the challenges of protecting large scale encroachment and illegal activities in the forest lands.

The total recorded forest area in Delhi is 85sqkm, which is 5.73% of its total geographic area. Of this, reserved and protected forests constitute 91.76% and 8.24% of the total forest area respectively. The forest department is short-staffed and ill-equipped to manage these large forest areas, officials said.

In December last year, the forest department informed the National Green Tribunal that the government had started the process to fill 226 vacant posts, including that of 211 forest guards, 11 wildlife guards and four forest rangers. The total number of posts in the department is 434 – 398 forestry staff and 36 ministerial staff. The process of training and recruiting people is still underway.

Officials of the forest department said that the meeting with the Delhi Police was prompted by a violent attack on four forest department officials on Thursday at the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary. The officials, who were patrolling the sanctuary around 7.30pm in two separate vehicles, were attacked by around 24-25 men carrying sticks, rods and knives. They beat the officials and damaged their vehicles.

Deputy conservator forests (south division) Amit Anand said that these attacks were a result of the crackdown initiated by his teams against alcohol smuggling from Haryana to Delhi using forest routes.

“Over the last two months, we have confiscated large quantities of alcohol, seized vehicles and have also dug up the regular routes that smugglers use,” Anand said.