Wildlife conservation lesson for judiciary
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, July 23 2011:
A two-day long orientation programme in wildlife conservation for the Judiciary in Manipur has begun from today at Imphal Hotel here.
Being organised jointly by Gauhati High Court, WWF-India and Traffic India, around 40 officers of the Judicial services including Judicial Magistrates are participating in the programme which was inaugurated by Justice TNK Singh, PCCF A Kharsiing and head of Traffic India Samir Sinha as chief guest, guest of honour and functional president respectively.
In his inaugural address, Justice TNK Singh observed that India is a role model on judicial activism and biodiversity conservation and said that in the past six decades, Indian judiciary has done marvellous jobs in protecting the citizen's rights, liberty and rule of law.
Stating that as a part of the federal system and defender of democracy, the court has been responsive to the changes in Indian society, Justice TNK Singh pointed out that there are so many statutes or Acts for the protecting depletion of forest in the country as well as for checking soil erosion, water conservation and increasing forest area or tree cover through massive afforestation and social programme.
He said that now we are in the midst of many orders passed by the apex court in the interest of human beings and more particularly the citizens of India for protection and improvement of natural environment including forest, lakes, river and wildlife to have compassion for living creatures.
Head of Traffic India Samir Sinha explained that the aim and objective of organising the training programme is to provide and overview on current status of forest and wildlife policies, legislation and other International covenants and their enforcement for senior Judicial officers of Manipur, to raise awareness and understanding of recent judicial pronouncements of the Supreme Court and High courts on environmental and wildlife matters, to improvement understanding of modern tools and techniques in wildlife crime prevention and investigation and their use for wildlife enforcement as well as to raise awareness on field situation and challenges of wildlife conservation in the local context.
PCCF A Kharsiing appealed to the people of North East India to protect environment and wildlife and noted that it is a fundamental duty of the citizens of India.