Bor reserve guards stop fishing at night, attacked

Nagpur: Selu police have registered an FIR against 8-9 fishermen for allegedly attacking forest staffers who accosted them for fishing in Bor dam during night. The incident occurred on the intervening night of February 23-24.
The earth fill dam on Bor river is a part of the buffer zone of 138sqkm Bor tiger reserve (BTR) in Wardha district. The dam, 60 km from here, is the major source of water for wildlife and birds.
Though the dam belongs to irrigation department, city-based contractor Chandu Patil had bagged fishing rights for which tender was floated by Maharashtra Fisheries Development Corporation (MFDC). Patil has been bagging the contracts since 2016.
According to the FIR, forest guards Premdas Bhakre, Gajanan Sayam, Sunil Dakhore and driver Rahul Patil were patrolling at around 9pm on February 23 when they saw four men near Pardi tower running towards the dam. “When the guards asked them to stop, they fled in three boats. Forest guards seized 150kg nets and two boats. An hour later, the forest staffers saw two boats with at least 8-10 men approaching the dam waters. Sensing trouble, Bhakre intimated other field staff through wireless and asked them to rush to the spot,” said divisional forest officer (DFO) Rahul Gavai.
The two boats came towards the patrolling staff and stopped near the shore. One Parvez Khan countered the staff on seizure of the nets and other material. When the guards asked names of the four persons who had fled the spot earlier, this irked Khan who entered into heated arguments with the staffers and threatened them with dire consequences if they did not allow to take away the nets and other seized material.
Gavai said as the staffers did not allow Khan to take away the seized material, he manhandled forest guard Narayan Kale and tore his shirt. “Not stopping at this, these fishermen pelted stones at the staff in which forest guard Ramesh Raut and Bhakre were injured. We immediately lodged a police complaint on the basis of which an FIR was registered,” said Gavai.
Contrary to forest department’s claim, contractor Patil said, “My men were not involved in fishing at night. They were there to remove some nets which had got stuck.” Patil added, “I agree that fishing should not be done at night, but villagers sneak into the dam waters through forest areas for fishing illegally. The forest staff has no control over them.”
“Being a contractor, I have lodged at least five complaints with Selu police against illegal fishing but both police and the forest staffers have failed to stop the menace due to which I’m suffering huge losses. I’m ready to give up the contract if MFDC refunds my money,” said Patil.
MFDC divisional manager BD Garad said, “This is for the first time such an incident has happened. We will talk to the contractor as it is his responsibility to curb such practices. Night fishing is completely prohibited.”