Forest, police officials hone skills in wildlife crime mgmt.

Amritsar: Forest and police officials of Punjab participated in a two-day training-cum-capacity building programme with an aim of developing skills in intelligence collection, investigation of wildlife crime, wildlife forensics and legal issues. The event was organised by Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Government of India in association with the Forest Department, Amritsar Forest Division, at Bachat Bhavan here. The programme culminated with a field exercise here today. As many as 56 officers of the Forest/Wildlife Department and the Police Department posted in Pathankot, Patiala, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Sangrur, Ferozepur, Mohali, Moga, Batala, Bathinda and Amritsar participated in the programme. Rajesh Kumar, divisional forest officer (wildlife), Pathankot, inaugurated the programme. Nishant Verma, IFS, regional deputy director, WCCB, New Delhi, gave a detailed presentation on wildlife crime scenario and enforcement network in India, particularly in Punjab. CP Sharma, senior technical officer, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, gave a presentation on the wildlife crime scene management and how to pick up evidence from the crime spot, besides use of forensic tools in evidence collection. J Elanchezhian, Deputy Commissioner of Police, discussed prevention and detection of wildlife crime, registration of FIR, case documentation and investigation of wildlife crime cases, including important case studies. A mock wildlife crime scene was enacted through a field exercise with focus on modular training on practical aspects of case documentation and evidence collection on the second day today.