CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Thursday directed the State government to make the proposed Joint Task Force (JTF) broad-based to tackle the increasing unnatural death of elephants in the State.
In pursuance of the court’s order on August 8, the Director General of Police and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) filed affidavits.
The DGP in his affidavit enclosed proceedings of a meeting under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary which had decided to constitute a JTF comprising officers from forest and police departments to investigate cases of unnatural death of elephants.
The division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Chittaranjan Dash observed that the proposed JTF is not broad-based to accommodate the views of wildlife experts and civil society groups working with farmers who may have lost their crops and other persons engaged with the issue of man-animal conflict.
According to the DGP’s affidavit, JTF will look into cases of poaching of tigers, leopards and illegal trade of pangolin apart from the death of elephants. A public prosecutor will be entrusted with handling the cases. The other tasks set out for the JTF include the creation of awareness about the protection of wildlife among all stakeholders.
However, the bench said the proceedings cited in the affidavit did not commit the JTF to any definite timeline. While the proposed steps are remedial in action, there is nothing much in terms of preventive action. The affidavit filed by the PCCF (Wildlife) shows that in a large number of cases, charge sheets are yet to be filed, the Bench observed.
Advocate General Ashok Kumar Parija undertook that necessary corrective steps will be taken and charge sheet will be filed in all those cases within three months. The JTF will either co-opt wildlife experts and civil society groups or consult them in all deliberations, which will take place once every fortnight so that a comprehensive action plan can be drawn up.
The bench directed the PCCF (Wildlife), who will be the convener of the JTF to place before the court an affidavit with a comprehensive action plan before September 26, the date fixed for the next hearing on the matter.