Under Section 197 CrPC, the Odisha government provides protection for forest officials.

The state government has given forest personnel protection under section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in response to the murder of two forest officers by poachers in the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR). On Wednesday, the Odisha Forest, Environment, and Climate Change Department released a notification on this. According to a top forest official, no court may now consider any offense claimed to have been committed by them while operating in the course of their official duties without prior approval from the government.

Further, he said, whenever they resort to firing, the executive magistrate will look into each incident and only if it is determined that the use of force was unjustified, excessive, and unnecessary will criminal proceedings be brought against the aforementioned forest officials upon acceptance of the inquiry report by the state government. The government has supplied weapons to the state’s forest employees for the protection of forest land, forest-based resources, and animals in protected and restricted forest regions. However, using guns while carrying out their prescribed duties and responsibilities might subject the forest staff to burdensome legal actions.

Therefore, all forest guards, foresters, deputy forest range officers, forest range officers, assistant conservators of forests, sub-divisional forest officers, deputy conservators of forests, deputy directors, divisional forest officers, regional chief conservators of forests, field directors, and any other forest officers in the state who are charged with maintenance of protected species are now subject to the provisions contained in sub-section (2) of section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Notably, a team of armed poachers shot and murdered forester Mathi Hansda in the STR late on June 16th, and on May 22th, a group of poachers shot and killed Bimal Kumar Jena, a 35-year-old protection assistant, in the sanctuary. Field-level authorities are protesting the incidences and calling for victims’ protection and fair recompense.