350 firearms for Sundarbans forest guards

Government has recently issued the Sundarbans Forest Division (SFD) with 350 automatic firearms for the use of its forest guards.

The firearms include 230 Chinese rifles and 120 SLRs. Besides, one lakh bullets for .303 Rifles and 27,000 bullets for different automatic firearms have also been earmarked for the forest guards to better patrol the Sundarbans where crimes ranging from abduction to robbery to logging are rife.

Of the issued firearms, eastern wing of the SFD will have 30 SLRs and 20 Chinese rifles while the western wing the rest, SFD sources said.

The firearms and ammunition are now deposited at Khulna and Bagerhat police headquarters and will be distributed among the forest guards once they are done with receiving automatic firearms training, SFD sources added.

The SFD now have over one thousand forest guards to protect the world's largest mangrove forest. Modern automatic weapons would replace in phases the outdated .303 rifles that the forest guards now use, said the conservator of the forest.