Protection of Wildlife and Forests

The measures taken by the Government to strengthen the protection of wildlife and reserve forests

The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, has been amended from time to time and made more stringent against wildlife related offences

Threatened species of wildlife are placed in the Schedules of the Wildlife (Protection), Act, 1972, thereby according them the highest degree of protection.

Centrally Sponsored Scheme 'Protection of Wildlife outside Protected Areas' and 'Recovery for saving Critically Endangered Species and their Habitats'.

The Government has created the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau as a multi disciplinary agency to complement the existing state machinery to deal with wildlife crime having ramification beyond state and national borders.

Wildlife staff posted in highly sensitive areas has been provided with arms, wireless sets and vehicles to keep check on wildlife poaching and trade.

Training and capacity building are organized to improve the skills of wildlife staff to improve the investigation and prosecution of wildlife offences.

Under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme ‘Intensification of Forest Management’, financial assistance is being provided to State/Union Territories Governments for strengthening forest protection. The Scheme is being implemented through the respective State Forest Departments.

Centrally Sponsored SchemeIntegrated Forest Protection Scheme (IFPS) was modified in 2009 by adding four new components and renaming it as Intensification of Forest Management Scheme (IFMS). The scheme supports activities like forest fire control & management,

Mechanism presently in operation for better co-ordination with States in matters of serious environmental concerns are as follows:

State/Union Territories Governments are made aware of the critical environmental concerns through various means of communications and meetings and are made to address these problems through existing systems.

State Governments are empowered to address environmental issues like forest fire, climate change, poaching of wild animals, encroachments of forests, pollution etc through various national and schemes.

States are made part of the national legal framework to address these environmental concerns.

Regular feedback and monitoring of the measures adopted by the States/Union Territories Governments is done by the Government of India.