NASHIK: The forest department has now thrown away the 80-year-old British Preliminary Offense Report (POR). There will now be a three-page POR stating that forest offenses will get registered on police lines and the court will give strict punishment to the culprits in forest offenses. A British-era method was being used for registering forest crimes since 1940.
However, due to this old method, it was not possible to mention the details of forest crimes in the POR. Therefore, in many cases, the culprits were acquitted even after committing many serious crimes. Forest Minister Sanjay Rathore has made a radical change in the POR of the forest department. According to the police department, the First Information Report of the crime (FIR) will be the POR of the crime.
It will also be in Marathi. If a forest offender commits a crime while on duty in the forest, the crime will get reported in a three-page POR. It will have to mention the details of the overall forest crimes. From now on, forest workers will have to file forest offenses in a new way. Sanjay Rathore, Minister of Forests, and Milind Mhaiskar, Principal Secretary, Forest Department reviewed the implementation of the Preliminary Forest Crime Report (POR) in the forest department.
Accordingly, discussions were held with senior forest officials recently.The old POR was radically changed, and the new three-page POR was sealed. According to the new POR, forest offenses will be filed in the forest department from February or March 2021.