IFS officer Ramesh Pandey to be honoured with pretigious award by UNEP

The United Nations Environment Programme has selected senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Ramesh Pandey for the acclaimed Asia Environmental Enforcement Award. The 1996-batch IFS officer, posted as Chief Conservator Forests in Lucknow and Secretary, UP State Bio-diversity Board, is known for his investigation and intelligence gathering on poachers. Ramesh Pandey will receive the award on November 13, at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok.

Impressive work in Katarniaghat to curb poaching

"Your excellent work in combating trans-boundary environmental crime has been recognised by the selection panel. The purpose of the Asia Environmental Enforcement Awards are to publicly recognise outstanding achievements by public organisations and individuals in Asia to combat transboundary environmental crime," the citation said.

At the time of setting up the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, the central government had picked him as one of the officers to be a part of it, after being impressed by his work in Katarniaghat to curb poaching. The government had set up the bureau to combat wildlife crime exclusively after the reports of zero tiger presence in Sariska reserve.

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Busted several tiger poaching gangs

Pandey busted several tiger poaching gangs and ensured a strict vigil on the airport to restrict wildlife smuggling, during his tenure at the Centre. Recently, as Field Director of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, he was in the news for coordinating arrest of renowned golfer Jyoti Randhawa for alleged poaching in the protected area of Katarniaghat. He also busted infamous tiger poaching gang of Lambu Fariyad, who was flagged by Interpol as well. Pandey also introduced M-Stripes (Monitoring System for Tigers Intensive Protection & Ecological Status), a novel software-based patrolling in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve on the recommendation of National Tiger Conservation Authority. It has been instrumental in catching 200 poachers in a patrol field that covers 2,50,000 km.

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“The model of M-Stripes was developed by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in 2010. However, it was only in 2018 that it was transformed into an app. That made things easier for field officers, and I decided to utilise it in Dudhwa. India is home to close to half of the world’s Tiger population, and it was in our hands to protect them. And if an app was going to help us, why lose the opportunity?” Pandey said.

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(With PTI inputs)