About Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB):
- It is a statutory body established by the Government of India to combat organized wildlife crime in the country.
- It was constituted under Section 38Y of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. It became operational in 2008.
- It is a multidisciplinary body with officials from Police, Forest, Customs, and other intelligence & enforcement agencies.
- It functions under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
- Headquarter:
- Its headquarters is situated in New Delhi.
- There are five regional offices located at Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, and Bhopal.
- Functions:
- Collect and collate intelligence related to organised wildlife crime activities and disseminate the same to state and other enforcement agencies for immediate action so as to apprehend the criminals and to establish a centralised wildlife crime data bank.
- Coordination of actions by various officers, state governments, and other authorities in connection with the enforcement of the provisions of this Act, either directly or through regional and border units set up by the Bureau.
- Implementation of obligations under various international conventions and protocols that are in force at present or which may be ratified or acceded to by India in the future.
- Assistance to concerned authorities in foreign countries and concerned international organisations to facilitate coordination and universal action for wildlife crime control.
- Develop infrastructure and capacity building for scientific and professional investigation into wildlife crimes and assist state governments to ensure success in prosecutions related to wildlife crimes.
- Advise the government of India on issues relating to wildlife crimes having national and international ramifications, and suggest changes required in relevant policy and laws from time to time.
- The WCCB assists in the enforcement of the CITES, to which India has been a party since 1976, and develops capacity through training programmes and species-identification support for frontline officers and prosecutors.
- It maintains liaison with the INTERPOL Environmental Crime Programme and the World Customs Organization to track cross-border trafficking routes.
- It has developed an online Wildlife Crime Database Management System to get real-time data in order to help analyse trends in crime and devise effective measures to prevent and detect wildlife crimes across India.
- This system has been successfully used to analyse trends, helping put in preventive measures as well as for successfully carrying out operations such as Operation SAVE KURMA, THUNDERBIRD, WILDNET, LESKNOW, BIRBIL, THUNDERSTORM, LESKNOW-II.
