Lok Sabha Question No. 1373 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-12-06
Subject: Environment related Offences
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: K. Shanmuga Sundaram

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 1373

TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.12.2021

## Environment related Offences

## 1373. SHRI SHANMUGA SUNDARAM K.:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) the  Crime in  India  report  released  by  the  National  Crime  Records  Bureau  for 2020 indicates  that  the  number  of  cases  registered  for  environment-related  offences  has increased compared to the previous year;
- (b) if so, the number of cases registered for the past three years and the current year;
- (c) the number of offences out of the above registered under the Noise Pollution Act and Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act; and
- (d) the steps taken to prevent violation under the Forest Act?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

- (a) and (b)

The Crime in India report released for 2020 indicates that the number of cases registered for environment-related offences has increased from 34676 in 2019 to 61767 in 2020.

Details of total no. environmental offenses registered from 2017 to 2020 are given below:

| Crime head                               |   2017 |   2018 |   2019 |   2020 |
|------------------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| Total cases registered for investigation |  44808 |  41441 |  40968 |  68921 |

(c)

Out  of  the  total,  the  number  of  offences  registered  under  the  Noise  Pollution  Act  and Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act are given below:

|   S.N. | Crime head                                   |   2017 |   2018 |   2019 |   2020 |
|--------|----------------------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
|      1 | Noise Pollution Acts                         |   8574 |   8075 |   8689 |   7482 |
|      2 | The Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act |  30784 |  28282 |  27407 |  55251 |

- (d)

The  Forest  authorities  States/UTs  are  mandated  to  take  action  under  the  Forest  Act,  1927. However, as  mandated,    the  Wildlife    Crime  Control  Bureau  has  taken  following  steps  to prevent illegal trafficking of endangered animals/wildlife species and to conserve wild flora and fauna of the country:-

- (i) Conducting  joint  operations  with  State  enforcement  agencies  to  apprehend criminals  involved  in  smuggling.  153  joint  operations  have  been  conducted  in 2019-20 which led to the arrest of 344 wildlife criminals while in 2020-21, 101 joint  operations  resulted  in  the  arrest  of  304  criminals  and  in  2021-22  till  Sept. 2021,  74  Joint  operations  have  been  conducted  in  which  202  wildlife  criminals have been arrested.
- (ii) Conducting  capacity  building  for  Forests  &  Police  Officials  on  investigation  of Wildlife cases under the provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. 26 such programs  were  conducted  and  1081  officials  from  State  Police  and  Forest department were trained in  2018-19,  24  programs  conducted  and  1102  officials trained  in  2019-20,  while  11  programs  had  been  conducted  and  403  officials trained in 2020-21. In 2021-22 till September, 2021, 03 such Capacity Building have been conducted resulting in the training of 141 officials.
- (iii) Conducting  sensitization  programs  for  the  officials  of  Border  Guarding  Forces, Customs,  Central  Industrial  Security  Force  (CISF),  Judicial  officers,  RPF,  GRP and other stake holders. 69 such programs were conducted and 4939 officials were sensitized  in  2018-19,  97  programs  conducted  and  7692  officials  sensitized  in 2019-20 while 108 programs have been conducted and 8603 officials sensitized in 2020-21. During 2021-22 till September, 76 online webinars have been conducted through which 4480 stakeholders have been sensitized.
- (iv) Conducting  sensitization  of  representatives  of  Panchayati  Raj  Institutions  and awareness  programs  for  students  and  members  of  public  on  the  importance  of wildlife and their role to combat wildlife crime. 31 such programs were conducted and  2323  representatives  of  PRIs/Students/Public  members  were  sensitized  in 2018-19,  33  programs  conducted  and  1906representatives  were  sensitized  in 2019-20,  while  03  programs  conducted  and  315  representatives  sensitized  in 2020-21.  In  2021-22  till  Sept.,  05  programs  have  been  conducted  and  272 representatives  of  PRIs/villagers  located  around  the  Protected  Areas  have  been sensitized.
- (v) Issuing  alerts  and  advisories  on  poaching  and  illegal  trade  of  wildlife  to  the concerned  State  and  Central  agencies  for  preventive  action.  WCCB  issued  124 alerts and advisories in 2018-19 and 103 have been issued in 2019-20, in 2020-21, 06 advisories and 234 alerts issued. In 2021-22, 03 advisories and 70 actionable alerts have been issued to State Agencies.
- (vi) Organized  Inter-Agency  meetings  for  coordination  of  inter-agency  enforcement efforts  in  combating  illegal  wildlife  crime.  09  IAC  meetings  were  organized  in 2018-19, 07 in 2019-20, 04 in 2020-21 and 03 have been conducted in 2021-22.
- (vii) Participation  in  the  Investigation  Support  Meetings  (ISM)  of  the  concerned enforcement  agencies  of  India  and  neighbouring  countries  for  working  on  the cross border linkages involved through the support of INTERPOL.

Apart from this the Bureau is regularly envisaging, planning, coordinating and conducting a number  of  specie  specific  enforcement  operations  with  coordination  of  State  Enforcement Agencies to invite attention of all the enforcement agencies throughout the country towards Killing, poaching and illegal Notable amongst these are-

'Operation SAVE KURMA ' to focus on the poaching, transportation and illegal trade of live turtles  and  tortoises  (15 th Dec  2016  to  30 th Jan  2017).  The  operation  resulted  in  seizure  of more than 15912 Nos. of live turtles with arrest of 55 suspects.

' Operation  TURTSHIELD ' (1 st Dec.  2019  to  31 st January  2020)  and  ' Operation TURTSHIELD-II '  (1 st Dec.  2020  to  28 th February  2021)  -  To  tackle  illegal  trade  of  live turtles from resulting in the seizure of 4601 live/dead turtles and arrest of 45 wildlife accused in 1 st operation while 59 accused were arrested in 2 nd operation which led to the recovery of 11771 live Turtles/Tortoises & 45 Kgs Turtle Calipee.

- 'Operation WILDNET ' (1 st May 2017 to 30 th June 2017), 'Operation WILDNET-II ' (1 st November to 30 th November, 2019), 'Operation WILDNET-III ' (1 st July to 30 th September, 2020)  and  'Operation WILDNET-IV '  (1 st August  to  30 th September,  2021)  to  drag  the attention of the enforcement agencies within the country to focus their attention on the ever increasing  illegal  wildlife  trade  over  internet  using  Social  Media  Platforms.  The  operation resulted in detection of online offers for sale of illegal wildlife articles, arrest of number of online sellers and seizures of articles.
- 'Operation LESKNOW' ( 1st Aug 2017 to 31 st Aug 2017), LESKNOW-II (1 st September 2018  to  30 th September  2018)  and Op  LESKNOW-III (1 st September,  2019  to  30 th September 2019) to drag attention of the enforcement agencies within the country towards the illegal wildlife trade in lesser known species of wildlife During these three operations 130 criminals were arrested while 74 cases of trade of lesser known species were detected.
- ' Operation BIRBIL ' to curb illegal trade in wild cat and wild bird species (1 st Nov 2017 to 30 th Nov 2017). A total of 23 cases were detected during the operation out of which 9 cases involved  seizure  of  bird  species  in  which  different  species  such  as  35  Little  Egrets,  35 Common Teals, 14 Rose Ringed Parakeets, 15 Munias and other 11 bird species were seized.
- 'Operation SOFTGOLD' from 1 st October, 2018 to 31 st March, 2019 to tackle Shahtoosh Shawl (made from Chiru wool) illegal trade and to spread awareness among the weavers and traders engaged in this trade. During operation, 350 Shawls were detected.
- 'Operation  Clean  Art'A pan India  operation  in  October,  2019  to  drag  the  attention  of Enforcement Agencies towards illegal wildlife trade in Mongoose hair brushes resulting in the arrest of 43 wildlife offenders and seizure of 54352 Mongoose hair brushes and 113 Kgs of raw Mongoose hair.
- 'Operation FREEFLY ' (1 st Feb. 2021 to 31 st March 2021)- To check illegal trade of live birds in pet markets from resulting in the seizure of 737 scheduled wild birds and arrest of 12 wildlife accused.
- 'Operation WETMARK ' (10 th June 2021 to 10 th July 2021)- To ensure prohibition of sale of meat of wild animals in wet markets across the country through enforcement as well as sensitization and awareness programs.

WCCB  also  actively  participated  in  global  operations  such  as Operation  Thunderbird envisaged by INTERPOL's  Wildlife Working Group by ensuring coordination and participation  of  various  enforcement  agencies  in  India  which  resulted  in  seizure  of  large number  of  wildlife/  wildlife  articles  through  registration  of  38  cases  and  arrest  of  71 criminals. WCCB also participated in INTERPOL coordinated ' Operation

THUNDERSTORM '  in  May  2018,  resulting  in  arrest  of  98  wildlife  criminals  with  the seizure of different wildlife contrabands with registration of 52 cases across the country. In June 2019, WCCB participated in ' Operation THUNDERBALL' resulted in the seizure of wildlife contraband detected in 44 cases and 87 wildlife criminals had been arrested during operation. INTERPOL launched global wildlife enforcement operation of THUNDER series code  named 'Operation  THUNDER 2021' from  1 st October  2021  to  31 st October,  2021 which was coordinated by WCCB. The operation resulted in registration of 27 wildlife cases across the country and arrest of 59 wildlife offenders.

- (viii) The  Bureau  has  developed  an  online  Wildlife  Crime  Database  Management System and shared user credentials with 970 Divisional Forest Offices, 50 Field Directors  of  Tiger  Reserves  and  37  Chief  Wildlife  Wardens  in  the  Forest Department and 34 Directors General of Police to facilitate them to upload data pertaining to wildlife crime detected on day to day basis.

The  Bureau  has  brought  out  INTERPOL's  Purple  Notice  on  Pangolin,  Live  Turtles,  Red Sanders, Rhino, SausureaCostus Roots, illegal poaching & smuggling of marine products like Sea Cucumber, Sea Horse & Pipe fish, illegal trade of exotic birds to disseminate the modus operandi encountered by enforcement agencies in the country to the other countries.

The Additional Director, WCCB has been designated as the nodal point on wildlife crime on SAWEN.  Information  sharing  with  the  member  countries  of  SAWEN  is  done  during meetings  conducted  by  SAWEN  Secretariat  to  strengthen  cooperation  among  the  member counties with a view to combat wildlife crime in the country.

Regular meetings are attended and information shared with the counterparts of Myanmar as per the  MoU between India and Myanmar on Border Cooperation in which wildlife crime control is one the agenda.

The Bureau has brought out the following publications for the capacity building of the field officers of relevant enforcement agencies:

- a) Wildlife Crime Investigation manual in Hindi and English
- b) Pocket booklet for wildlife crime investigation officers on wildlife crime investigation.
- c) X-Ray Manual of wildlife products in illegal trade.
- d) Identification Manual of Wildlife Species in trade.
- e) Hindi and English Booklet of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 for investigators and prosecutors.
- f) A  book  on  'Illegal  Bird  Trade  in  India'  has  also  been  prepared  by  WCCB  for Enforcement Agencies.

The efforts of WCCB to combat wildlife crime has been recognized internationally through following awards and appreciations:

- i) Asia Environment Enforcement Award 2018.
2. ii) Appreciation of INTERPOL for Operation THUNDERSTORM in 2018.
3. iii) Appreciation of CITES Secretariat for Operation WILDNET-II IN 2019.
4. iv) Clark R Bavin Award for Wildlife Law Enforcement, 2019.
- v) Asia Environment Enforcement Award 2020.

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