Justice Ms Gita Mittal, the Chief Justice (CJ) of Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Thursday e-inaugurated an online workshop on “Law Governing Forests, Wildlife and Environment”
The workshop was organised by J&K Judicial Academy and J&K Forest Department
Justice Sanjay Dhar; Pr. Chief Conservator of Forests, J&K, Dr. Mohit Gera; Chief Conservator of Forests, Central, T.Rabi Kumar; and other senior officials of the Forest Department were present on the occasion.
The three-day online module on laws governing forests, wildlife and environment has been developed on the initiative of the CJ and the Forest Department involving experts in forest and environmental laws from across the country including officers from JK Forest Department.
Justice Gita Mittal, while inaugurating the online workshop, spoke on sensitization and empowerment of judicial officers and other stakeholders in justice delivery system, on various laws and legislations on forest conservation and environment protection. She also stressed on generating awareness among judicial officers on various important topics like sustainable development goals, global warming, carbon footprint, CAMPA and its related terms such as CA and NPV, and various other Acts such as Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 1960, Wild life Protection Act, 1972 etc.
She said that J&K is endowed with rich biodiversity which needs to be preserved. She complimented the efforts of the Forest Department in protection of this natural wealth. She also emphasised on the need for more such programmes addressing basic issues on environment and biodiversity. She also called for concerted efforts of all the stakeholders and society in preservation and protection of environment for the future generations. The online workshop is being conducted in collaboration with Judicial Academy of Jammu and Kashmir for the Judicial officers, trainee judicial Officers from Telengana, and public prosecutors and law officers from J&K and Ladakh.
PCCF ,DrMohit Gera, gave an overview of forests, wildlife and environment sector and said that the role of judiciary has been tremendous in conservation of forest and protection of the environment.
Principal CASFoS, Dehradun KunalSatyarthi, and Chief Conservator of Forests, Jammu, Ramesh Kumar, spoke on the Forest Legislation in India and J&K.
The module was attended by close to 225 participants from various states/UTs viz. J&K, Ladakh, Delhi, Tamilnadu, Telangana and Chandigarh.