In the first ever video conference with the district-level Police and Forest officials, Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy called for more active role by the officials with regard to forest encroachments.
He issued instructions to the police officers right up to the station house officers all over the State to respond quickly and show a sense of urgency whenever attempts are reported about encroachment of forests, felling of trees for smuggling or poaching of wild animals.
Mr. Mahender Reddy called for regular meetings among Forest, Police and Revenue officials for better coordination towards forest protection.
He asked the superintendents of police to include forest protection as an agenda item in their monthly crime review meetings.
Village-level community outreach programmes by the police in more sensitive areas will bring about more awareness among public towards forest conservation, he said, and urged the police to play an active role in educating the public representatives about the ongoing forest destruction.
Mr. Reddy asked the police officials to use the Google images of the encroached area, to drive home the message, and told them to focus on prevention of offences related to forest areas rather than merely on booking cases.
He exhorted the police officials to use the intelligence network to identify the kingpins of the forest encroachment, smuggling of forest produce and poaching of wild animals and book them under PD Act, rather than harassing the poor people.
Special Chief Secretary, Environment, Forests, Science & Technology Ajay Mishra, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of Forest Forces, P.K. Jha too addressed the video conference held at the State Secretariat.
The video conference was attended by senior officers from Forest and Police departments.
