Training Needs Assessment for Wildlife Enforcement

TRAFFIC India organised a one-day Workshop on Training Needs Assessment (TNA) for Wildlife Enforcement at the WWF-India Secretariat on March 12, 2007. Lack of adequate capacity has been perceived as a major handicap for the Forest Department and other enforcement agencies engaged in curbing wildlife crime and illegal trade across the country. To support enhancing capacity to address this challenge, TRAFFIC India aims to work closely with the Ministry of Environment and Forests, State forest departments and other enforcement agencies.

As a first step, this workshop aimed to assess the training needs for various levels across enforcement agencies. This TNA exercise will lead to the development of appropriate training modules as well as an Enforcement Handbook for field practitioners that addresses the present scenario of wildlife crime and illegal trade in the country and around.

The workshop was chaired by Sri Vinod Rishi, former Director General, Wildlife Preservation, Govt. of India & Director, Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy. Mr Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO, WWF India presented the vision and overview of WWF India while Mr. Samir Sinha, Head TRAFFIC India presented an introduction to Traffic India and the objectives of the workshop. Addressing the group, Mr. Neeraj Kumar, D.G., Home guards and Civil Defence, N. Delhi dwelt upon the backward and forward linkages of wildlife criminals and on the role of various agencies to check such offences. He emphasised on the need for various enforcement agencies to work together for this cause.

The participants included senior officials from the MoEF, Police, CBI, Customs, DRI, ITBP, Army, state Forest and police departments and the Wildlife Institute of India. The deliberations led to the identification and prioritisation of various subjects and areas which could be taken up for training various organisations in better fighting wildlife crime.