Bhubaneswar: The State Government has set up special courts across all 30 districts of the State for handling wildlife-related cases.
“Special courts designated to try wildlife cases. A path breaking step by Odisha. It is bound to improve the rate of conviction & will give a boost for conservation of wild wealth of our State,” Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Wildlife, Susanta Nanda informed on X.
The Home Department has recently brought a notification in this regard, following an instruction from Orissa high court to the State Government.
As per the Home Department notification, the courts of chief judicial magistrates (CJM) and additional chief judicial magistrates (ACJM) in each district will now act as the special courts to deal with wildlife related cases.
In Sundargarh district only, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sundargarh and Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Rourkela will act as the two special courts.
A senior Forest department official said Odisha is the first state in the country to have such special courts for wildlife cases in all the districts.
A public prosecutor in each district will be entrusted with the handling of these cases, the official said.
The move to have special courts came after the State government through DGP submitted an affidavit before the Orissa high court in August 2022 for designating chief judicial magistrate/additional chief judicial magistrate in every district to deal with wildlife offence cases.
More than 6,900 poachers were arrested for killing and trafficking of 2,869 wildlife animals during the past 10 years.
 |