By Samudra Gupta Kashyap
Disclosing this, Assam Forest and Environment Minister Rockybul Hussain said with the President's assent on the proposed amendments, persons found guilty of offences like poaching would henceforth not only become non-bailable, but could also attract life imprisonment and heavy fines.
"The existing provision of sentencing a person to anywhere between three to seven years of imprisonment on being found guilty of poaching has now become seven to ten years. Similarly, a person convicted for a second time would have to undergo a 10-year imprisonment and in certain cases upto life imprisonment," Hussain said.
Hussain also said that the rates of fines have been also raised following the amendments that have received Presidential assent. "A person proven guilty of poaching or violating provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, who had to earlier pay a fine of Rs 10,000 will now have to pay Rs 25,000. Another provision of the amendment has increased the fine for second-time convicts from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000," the minister said.
Yet another significant amendment brought about in the Wildlife Protection Act exclusively for Assam is that wildlife cases would henceforth not be entertained by the lower court, and instead go directly to the District and Sessions Judge's Courts, Hussain said.
With five national parks, 17 wildlife sanctuaries and five elephant reserves, Assam has been facing a huge challenge of protecting its wildlife, more particularly tigers and one-horned rhinos, from organised gangs of poachers which have alleged links to international networks.
Massive encroachment and human interference in the national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserved forests on the other hand have led to habitat shrinkage, forcing wildlife to stray out to inhabited areas in search of food.
Source : IndianExpress
0 comments:
Post a Comment