Free helpline for reporting wildlife crime to be set up

New Delhi, May 30 (UNI) The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau is planning to put in place a 24 X 7 toll free helpline for the general public to pass on to authorities any information relating to crimes against wildlife.

Additional Director Rina Mitra, who joined the Bureau recently, said the functional aspects of the operations of the Bureau will get momentum with such a help-line.

The Bureau has five regional offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Jabalpur and three sub-regional offices in Cochin, Guwahati and Amritsar.

It also has five border units at Moreh, Nathula, Gorakhpur, Motihari and Ramanathapuram to control crimes in wildlife.

The Bureau is a premier national agency set up under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 for collection and collation of intelligence, coordination of enforcement action, assisting authorities in foreign countries to bring about a coordinated universal action against wildlife crimes, and capacity building for scientific and professional investigation, among others.

The Bureau was set up along with the National Tiger Conservation Authority as a need was felt for a statutory authority with legal backing to ensure tiger conservation and the need to give more teeth to law against wildlife crimes.

Creation of these authorities had been recommended by a special Task Force set up by the National Wildlife Board following the discovery that Sariska Reserve had lost all its tigers.

UNI NAZ KD RK1320