Forest department takes to online FIR registrations on offences in Karnataka

BENGALURU: Emulating Kerala model, Karnataka Forest Department on Tuesday began a pilot project “Garudashi” to help citizens file First Information Report (FIR) online on cases related to forest offences in selected divisions.

Launching online FIR facility in Bengaluru developed by by Karnataka Forest Department in collaboration with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), Minister of Forests and Environment Eshwar Khandre said after taking note of the Kerala model of online registration of FIR related to forest offences, a direction was given to officials concerned of Forest department in September last year to develop online FIR filing facility to help citizens file any offences and accordingly a system has been developed to register online FIR.

Initially, Khandre said the pilot project of filing FIR will be made available in Bengaluru city, Bengaluru Mobile Squad, Bhadravathi division, Sirsi division and Male Mahadeshwara Hill Wildlife Sanctuary ranges. The filing of online FIR will be streamlined after noting how the system works in the introduced ranges and a decision will be taken to extend it across the State in phases.

By online FIR, the Minister said, would be of immense help to citizens to register offences while also beneficial for the officials concerned to review the cases and access to cases at their fingertips. Complainants will also stay alert on the status of their complaints to know whether their complaint has been chargesheeted by forest officials or not.

“Garudakshi” online FIR, the Minister felt would bring down forest offences such as forest encroachments among others. Besides, an online FIR facility will also come in handy to assess the performance of Range Forest Officers (RFOs) in awarding promotions as the online FIR facility will get to know if a particular case has been chargesheeted in time among other factors.