Wildlife staff to be appointed across the country

Calcutta News.Net
Monday 13th August, 2007 (IANS)

In keeping with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's instructions to recruit frontline staff in sanctuaries and tiger reserves on a priority basis, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) Monday decided to set up full-time posts across the country and spell out their jurisdiction.

A regional deputy director would look after the running of the regional office of the Crime Control Bureau at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, till a full time officer is appointed, a ministry of environment and forests statement said.

Out of the six posts of assistant directors, three will be posted at sub-regional offices and three will be posted at headquarters.

Regional Offices at Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai will have two officials each and New Delhi and Jabalpur, one each.

Three sub-regional offices as well as five border stations will have one inspector and one person respectively while the headquarter will have two inspectors.

The jurisdiction of regional offices has also been defined. The WCCB regional office in Mumbai will look after Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The Delhi office will cover Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi.

The regional office in Kolkata will cover Bihar, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and West Bengal while the Chennai office will be in charge of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.

These offices will assist and advise customs authorities in the inspection of consignments of flora and fauna as per the provisions of Wildlife (Protection) Act, CITES and Exim Policy.

They will also collect and collate intelligence related to organised wildlife crime activities and disseminate them to states and other enforcement agencies for immediate action.

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