Informers to get incentives from forest department

13 Sep 2008, 0503 hrs IST, Himanshu Kaushik ,TNN

GANDHINAGAR: The forest department has finally woken up. To strengthen their informer network and also to get more tip-offs about illegal activities in and around various sanctuaries in the state, the department has proposed incentives for informers.

A proposal has already been cleared and is awaiting a notification from the government. Officials said several incidents of wood theft have been reported in the state and this incentive will be very handy to curb the menace.

Forest officials have proposed to give nearly 10 per cent of the. Incentives will also be given to informers of suspicious movement of value of the seizure as incentive to the informer people in the area, a senior official of the department said.

He said this is apart from the regular incentive announced by the government . Officials said, however, the department has left it to the government to decide incentives for information regarding any movement of people, poaching and also information related to wildlife protection.

These will be designed on the same lines as the police information network . Foresters feel these funds will become necessary since the area of forest jurisdiction will increase - like in Gir where lions were earlier confined to 1,450 sq km, but now they are found in a larger area.

The department is already facing shortage of staff in the entire state and hence such a move will be a boost conservation of wildlife. This proposal was under consideration ever since the recent poaching incident took place, the official said.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Ahmedabad/Informers_to_get_incentives_from_forest_department/articleshow/3478240.cms