740 Forest Deptt staff, officers assaulted in 10 yrs in Mah
   Date :20-Oct-2020

740 Forest Deptt _1 
 
 
Staff Reporter :
 
More than 300 of these cases are from Vidarbha region alone
 
 
The data collected by an environment activist and submitted before the Supreme Court through an intervention application, reveals shocking details that 740 employees and officers of Forest Department faced assault in 10 years in Maharashtra. There is more to the story. More than 300 of these cases are from Vidarbha region, which has preserved its forest and wildlife for long and is termed ‘tiger capital’. Every Government boasts of championing the cause of environment protection. However, the situation on ground presents a grim picture as far as safety of field staff is concerned in case of Maharashtra.
 

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Nature Conservation Society’s Kishor Rithe, who has been a member of several State and National committees including Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife from 2010-13, collected the data regarding assault on Forest Department employees and officers for the period between 2010 and 2020. He collected the data for the areas of tiger reserves, wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, and territorial divisions in Maharashtra. Also, he collected the data for deaths since 1987. As per the data Rithe has presented before the Supreme Court in the intervention application in Writ Petition 202 of 1995, as many as 740 employees and officers of Forest Department were assaulted between 2010 and June 2020. Out of these many assaults, nearly 50 per cent, that is, 336 were recorded in last three years -- 2017 to 2019.
 
The assaults happened in remote, Naxal-affected forest areas of Gadchiroli as well as in Mumbai Wildlife Division and Sanjay Gandhi National Park areas. As per the data collected by Rithe, as many as 24 of Forest Department staff/officers died in some cases since 1987. Vidarbha region, which maintains the forest cover ratio for the State of Maharashtra, has seen more assaults. As per the data, over 300 employees and officers suffered assaults in this region alone. Of total 24 deaths reported since 1987, maximum 17 deaths were reported in Vidarbha region alone.
 
As per the data collected by Rithe, Amravati Division and Melghat Tiger Reserve and such areas covering Amravati district reported over 90 cases and one death. Nagpur Division and Pench Tiger Reserve areas reported 79 assaults on Forest Department staff/officers, followed by Gadchiroli district area reporting 63 assaults, Yavatmal reporting 22 cases, and Chandrapur and Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve areas reporting 20 cases. As far as deaths are concerned, 17 deaths of Forest Department staff/officers were reported in Vidarbha region. These included seven in Gadchiroli district since 1987, followed by six in Nagpur, two in Bhandara, and one each in Gondia and Amravati. As far as deaths in Gadchiroli district are concerned, the oldest on record dates back to 1987.
 
Then, a Forest Guard was killed at Wadadam in Sironcha Forest Division. The other deaths in Gadchiroli were as follows: a Range Officer at Pedigudam in Allapalli Division in 1998, Forest Guard (Bhamragarh Division) in 2006, forest labourer in Sironcha Division in 2007, forest labourer in Asaralli Division in 2009, a forest labourer (Mahout) in Sironcha Division in 2013, a forest labourer in Bhamragarh Division in 2017. The year-wise details of deaths in Nagpur are as follows: 1987 -- Range Officer, Nagpur, Nagpur Division; 1990 -- Forest Guard, Khapa, Nagpur Division; 1993 -- Range Officer, Khapa, Nagpur Division; 1993 -- Range Officer, Nagpur, Nagpur Division; 1998 -- Forest Guard, Nagpur, Nagpur Division; 1999 -- Forest Guard, Nagpur; Nagpur Division. As far as the assaults are concerned, most of them were reported in Pench Tiger Reserve and nearby areas.