Melghat cyber cell gives a hard time to wildlife criminals

Seizures from the cyber cell. Image: As originally published by The Times of India.

Vijay Pinjarkar, The Times of India | September 15, 2021

The wildlife crime cell (WCC) in Melghat is giving a tough time to criminals by tracking them from their hideouts. Till now, the cell has helped arrest over 175 criminals in 33-odd cases of poaching and trading of body parts of animals. The WCC is the only such cell in Maharashtra.

The role of WCC, popularly called the cyber cell, has come a long way in cracking down on poachers and traders, especially dealing in tiger, leopard, and porcupine body parts in the recent past.

“In the last two months, the Nagpur forest division officials have arrested over 30 criminals in the Tadoba and Pench tiger reserve landscapes and the role of cyber cell proved crucial by tracking their locations from call details. We could immediately nab at least six criminals in the last two tiger poaching cases,” said deputy conservator of forest (DyCF) Dr Bharat Singh Hada.

“When I was posted in Satara, we had seized a leopard skin. Here, too, the Melghat cyber cell data proved to be of big help in nabbing the criminals. Besides, call details records (CDRs) are also acceptable documents in the court of law,” Hada added.

Talking to TOI, Melghat CCF & field director Jayoti Banerjee says, “The WCC made a modest beginning in 2013 by nabbing hardcore tiger poachers from MP. Now it consists of a separate office equipped with cyber equipment and technology and a dedicated team which includes a DFO and six forest guards. It has two workstations, drone squads, a vehicle, cyber tool kit, laptops, and software of data analysis, etc.”

“In 2013, a few criminal cases that the cyber cell initiated had long-reaching implications. There were many gangs from Madhya Pradesh involved in poaching tigers and smuggling their body parts to traders in Haryana, Delhi, and Punjab. This led to establishing international links to China and Tibet. Wildlife crime has a wide impact on society, ecology and the economy. It is the third-largest trade after drugs and arms,” says DFO Vishal Mali, Kolhapur (wildlife), who played a key role in streamlining the cyber cell in 2013.

CCF Banerjee said the Melghat cyber cell deals in CDRs, subscriber detail record (SDRs), tower dump data, live tower location, internet protocol details record, interception, international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) surveillance etc.

“The cell maintains a database of wildlife criminals and does a follow-up of court cases. We are in the process of creating a graded information network in Melghat which will provide secret information of poachers and smugglers in all important wildlife crime cases in Maharashtra,” Banerjee said.

“Wildlife criminals have gone hi-tech with taking to online trading in a big way by displaying pictures of tiger nails and skin. Our team led by forester Akash Sarda and others crack such cases from IP addresses. The team has been trained by the Maharashtra Intelligence Academy (MIA), Pune. This training process is ongoing,” says Banerjee.

Sarda says the cyber cell provides data based on a formal request from the division head on particular offences. Recently, several cases were cracked and criminals put behind bars.
“Our team is also trained in fingerprint lifting and digitization of fingerprints. It has been provided legal training and has been given a legal toolkit which is used at the time of offences,” he said.

Not only cracking wildlife crime, but the cyber cell also played a crucial role in detecting forest fires in 2019. The WCC is registered with NASA firms’ satellite which delivers real-time messages and a map to respective RFOs, DyCFs and field director on WhatsApp as well as wireless. GPS was installed in each vehicle and the teams were tracked. This led to an immediate response from the staff.

ACTION IN LAST 1 YR
* Cases cracked: 17
* Accused held: 69
* Seizure: A tiger skin, 30 claws, 5 canines, 10 leopard claws and canines, & bones, 18 sloth bear nails, 6 sambar horns, 1 gaur horn, 1 ivory tusk, 10 monitor lizard skin, 130 pangolin scales, 2 sand boa and 10 motorcycles.

Read the original story here.