TEHRAN – A long-awaited bill to uphold the rights of rangers including rules on carrying and use of firearms, was finally approved by Majlis [Iranian parliament], Mehr news agency reported on Monday.

Under the law, it is stipulated that the Department of Environment forces defending the environment and natural resources, are subjected to the law of the use of weapons during the armed conflicts and when needed.

The related executive agencies shall be subject to the law in respect of their assignments to rangers, including fines and compensation payment in essential cases.

The country’s previous gun rules and regulations for rangers sound inefficient due to lack of clarity in the law and ineffective legislative strategies which allows the rangers to use weapons only in case of self-defense, otherwise they are not allowed to shoot.Prosecutors and courts are required to review the cases of related issues out of turn, the report added.

The country’s previous gun rules and regulations for rangers sound inefficient due to lack of clarity in the law and ineffective legislative strategies which allows the rangers to use weapons only in case of self-defense, otherwise they are not allowed to shoot.

This is in conflict with the job description of the rangers who are supposed to protect the environment and the precious biodiversity. Once spotting a poacher ranges should shoot bullets in the air to warn them and then they can shoot them in the leg, which is not normally possible as things don’t usually happen in such order and they have to make a decision in a very short time-span that’s why rangers get killed in such armed conflicts.

So, a bill was drafted in July 2016 by the DOE following the death of two rangers, Mohammad Dehqani and Parviz Hormozi, who were killed in June 2016 during an armed conflict with poachers in Hormozgan province. It has been approved by the judiciary committee of Majlis in September 2018.

As per the bill the rangers would not face charges in case of involuntarily manslaughter while on duty and would be compensated for the losses they suffer while trying to protect the environment and the biodiversity, the government is required to allocate budget to help those rangers who might be obliged to pay out blood money or other sort of money-penalty compensation for murder or any injuries trespassers may suffer in armed conflicts with them, and the rangers will be provided with regular insurance coverage and are entitled to compensation for the losses they suffer while doing their job.

Some 123 rangers have been killed while protecting the environment sine 1979 in Iran.

FB/MQ/MG