80 HELD IN DRIVE AGAINST FOREST AND WILDLIFE CRIME

LUCKNOW : In a crackdown against perpetrators of forest and wildlife crimes, forest department officials arrested 80 persons from 26 districts in the last 12 hours. During the special drive ‘crack tree and wildlife crime’ that started on Saturday night, 90 plum-headed parakeet, a medium-sized parrot of striking beauty and rose-ringed parakeet, also known as ring-necked parakeet, were rescued from Rampur and Firozabad. In all, 44 trucks, 10 tractor trollies, 2 pick-up vans and 10 bicycles were also seized for illegally ferrying animals and timber from the forest area. Action was also taken against two saw mills and two private wood godowns for illegally storing and trading timber. The districts where the operation was conducted included, Shahjahanpur, Gorakhpur, Rampur, Lakhimpur Khiri, Prayagraj, Hapud, Moradabad, Pilibhit, Lucknow, Hathras, Jhansi, Firozabad, Azamgarh, Deoria, Jaloun, Barabanki, Siddharthnagar, Mirzapur and Kushinagar. Altogether 5000 officials and staff of the forest department conducted entire operation. “The operation was first of its kind and it was successful,” claimed Pawan Kumar, head of the forest force in Uttar Pradesh.

Jaya Singh, senior resident, department of oral pathology and microbiology, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow received the certificate of excellence for the Best Scientific Presentation on Sunday. She received the certificate on the occasion of the 6th World Conference organised by the ‘Indo Pacific Academy of Forensic Odontology’ in Chandigarh.