RANCHI: Forest officials in Jharkhand are planning to deploy armed guards by providing weapons to the forest personnel in Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) on the lines of Kaziranga Tiger Reserve and other national parks located in different states.
According to Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Wildlife, Paritosh Upadhyaya, as of now, tigers and other wild animals in PTR are being protected by a joint team of forest guards and unarmed home guards as and when required, but efforts are allegedly being made to equip them with arms.
“As of now, we are protecting the tigers from poaching with the help of home guards borrowed from the local administration, but in future a proposal may be sent to the Centre for armed guards on the lines of other states like Kaziranga and other national parks or sanctuaries,” said the PCCF (Wildlife). “It is a long process as procurement of arms has to be done, but it is in the plan and a proposal may be sent to the Centre in this regard,” he added.
According to PCCF (Wildlife) Paritosh Upadhyaya, sometimes armed guards become essential for the protection of wildlife animals from poaching in PTR.
Meanwhile, a temporary arrangement is being made by demanding armed home guards from the local administration. For this, the two Deputy Directors and three Forest Range Officers have been given the powers of Special Executive Magistrate.
Those who have been given magisterial powers are – Deputy Director, North Division, Prajesh Kant Jena, Deputy Director (South Division) Kumar Ashish, along with the Forest Range Officers, Umesh Kumar Dubey, Ajay Toppo and Nand Kumar Mahto.
According to Kumar Ashish, since the poachers who enter PTR are fully armed, the forest personnel who come across them feel helpless as they are unarmed.
“Therefore, it has become necessary to provide armed guards also. For the time being, we have written to the local administration to provide two units each for the North and South Division of PTR,” said Deputy Director (South Division) Kumar Ashish. “It will create a sense of deterrence among the poachers, reducing 90 per cent of the poaching incidents,” he added.
According to Ashish, the increasing number of tigers in PTR also calls for the necessity of armed guards. “Kaziranga and other tiger reserves located in several other states have armed guards with sophisticated weapons and patrolling is done by them only, therefore, PTR also requires the same arrangements,” he said.
Notably, Palamu Tiger Reserve falls in a Maoist-affected area. Budha Pahar, a former Maoist training centre, is also within the Palamu Tiger Reserve, due to which several major Maoist attacks have allegedly taken place within PTR.
Reportedly, about 13 forest personnel have been martyred in the Palamu Tiger Reserve area since the 1990s and many others were also allegedly punished by the Maoists for taking action against smuggling on several occasions.
Spread over 1,149 square kilometres, the Palamu Tiger Reserve is home to numerous wildlife animals, including tigers, elephants, bison, spotted deer and bears. Currently, the Palamu Tiger Reserve area is home to six tigers, around 180 elephants, over 10,000 spotted deer, over 50 bison and around 200 wolves. They are being protected by 110 forest guards and 300 trackers with the help of sticks and sickles. The patrolling team also has sticks and sickles only.