Three landmark judgments by the Bijni sessions court in lower Assam’s Chirang district have given a big boost to the state’s wildlife conservation.

Five convicts were sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 50,000 in three different cases for wildlife offences in Manas National Park.

The cases were on poaching of deer inside the park, poaching with firearms and killing of wild animals and birds. The judgments were delivered by additional sessions judge N.U. Ahmed recently.

A senior official of the Wildlife Trust of India said the organisation and its partner, International Fund for Animal Welfare, in collaboration with the Assam forest department and the Bodoland Territorial Council have been providing training to select frontline staff of Manas to improve the skill and knowledge of writing offence reports for trial courts for the past seven years. “The trainings continue for three to seven days. Today, we have seen results of these trainings. Improving conviction will go a long way in minimising wildlife offence, not only in Assam but also across the country,” the official added.

Manik Brahma, 59, a Manas forester, who has been serving in Kuklong range and will retire in 2020, was an investigator in one of the cases. “I have registered at least 179 cases from Kuklong range of first addition to Manas and achieved conviction in only one case so far. I have been attending all legal trainings imparted by the Wildlife Trust of India and mentored by B.N. Talukdar, a retired forest official since 2013, Brahma said.

“The trainings gave me confidence and today, after 179 cases, we have won three. I can hold my head high now and I am sure the offenders got the message of the power of the forest department and the wildlife law. We are trying to motivate the younger generation of frontline forest staff so that they keep the tempo going,” he added.

A source said the database of the Centre’s Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (wccb.gov.in) speaks of the extremely low conviction rates of wildlife crime in India. Between 2009 and 2018, a total of 154 convictions have been sentenced by trial courts, of which many have been challenged in higher courts and got acquittals.

“Poor conviction rates have given a boost to the morale of the poachers who return and indulge in wildlife crimes,” a forest official said.