India: Officials of the Mahanadi wildlife division at Satkosia Tiger Reserve have employed people living in villages adjoining the sanctuary to tell the forest staffers about poachers, timber mafia and cow traffickers.

Official sources said the names and addresses of informers will be kept confidential. They said this will help get information quickly about poachers and prevent killing of animals. According to divisional forest officer (Mahanadi wildlife division) Anshu Pragya Das the informers will be paid 'reward money' to encourage them help wildlife officers. "It is not possible to get all information about the forest because the area is quite huge and we have less staff. This will also stop most villagers from poaching animals because there are many who do so," she said.

By engaging the undercover informers, the wildlife wing also hopes to check illegal transport of sal leaf and hemp. "Forest routes are at times being used by cow traffickers to avoid being caught. We are getting early information and detain the traffickers. In the past three months, we have booked around 50 persons for poaching, smuggling of timber and cow trafficking," said the senior wildlife officer.

(Source: The Times of India)