The forest guards are the first responders at any scene of wildlife crime and it is of utmost importance that they are equipped with legal, scientific and practical knowledge as well as skills to process a crime scene, conduct sound investigation, and build solid cases which can withstand legal scrutiny in the court of law.

Hunting, illegal trade, electrocution and poisoning are serious threats to wildlife. Effective and timely law enforcement is the key to reducing these widespread threats. WCT has designed the Wildlife Law Enforcement Training (WLET) and the Forensics Training programmes to build capacity in the frontline forest staff across the country.

Alongside policy makers and enforcement officers, lawyers and judges are key stakeholders in the efforts to combat wildlife crime at all levels. WCT has been actively working with both these players of the judicial system through several programmes. We have been conducting regular sensitisation workshops for judges, especially of sessions courts, in collaboration with State-level judicial academies.

Till date, WCT has trained over 14,300 forest officers through 232 training sessions conducted in 33 Protected Areas spread across nine Indian states. In fact, WCT’s WLET programme is part of the core curriculum of the state forest training institutes of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The training programme involves:

• Wildlife law and legal procedures
• Case studies on latest judgements
• Modern crime investigation techniques
• Best practices in handling and processing of evidence