The government will reward people who provide information that helps uncover wildlife crimes. For this, the Ministry of Environment and Forest has issued the Wildlife Crime Detection (Informant) Reward Rules, 2020. Under the rules, rewards can be won for two categories of information concerning five groups of wildlife. The highest reward is Tk 50,000.

Rewards will be paid for information leading to the capture of a person involved in a crime, or any person with wildlife, either inside or outside a forest area. The rewards cover information on tigers; crocodiles or elephants; deer; turtles or snakes; and birds or other wildlife.

For tigers, information leading to the capture inside a forest area of a person involved in the crime, or any person with a tiger, earns Tk 50,000; information for a capture outside the forest earns Tk 25,000.

For crocodiles and elephants, the reward is Tk 30,000 for information on an accused with the animal inside a forest area, and Tk 15,000 outside it. For deer, the reward is Tk 20,000 for information uncovering a crime inside the forest and Tk 10,000 outside.

For turtles or snakes, the rules set rewards of Tk 15,000 and Tk 10,000 respectively for the two categories. For birds and other wildlife, information uncovering a crime inside the forest earns Tk 10,000, and outside the forest Tk 8,000.

A five-member committee headed by the chief conservator of forests will be formed to award the money. It will review the list prepared for financial rewards, decide on them and set the amount of each reward under the rules.

The rules say the forest officer will keep all information about the informant, including their identity, confidential during the investigation, while the crime is being uncovered and afterwards.

If a wildlife crime is uncovered through an investigation based on information from an informant, the informant may be given a financial reward. Even if the crime is not uncovered at first, the informant may be considered for a reward if the crime is later uncovered with evidence or the offender is identified and arrested.

The informant will not be considered for a reward if the offender cannot be identified, if the offender cannot be arrested or caught red-handed, or if the offender is identified but the wildlife cannot be recovered.

The rules also say the divisional forest officer, warden, additional chief warden or the Wildlife Crime Control Unit concerned will pay the reward money to the informant within seven days at most. If an informant wants to keep their identity secret for fear for their life, they must be identified by an identification number (ICN), and all later communication must use the ICN.

The rules say an informant will be ineligible for a financial reward if the information on the wildlife crime has already been published, if the information is given anonymously, if the informant is involved in the crime, or for any other valid reason.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.