The bill to support park rangers drafted by the Department of Environment in July 2016 has been approved by the Majlis Health Commission in a Sunday session.
Under the bill, park rangers would be equipped with weapons to protect their lives when faced with armed offenders, Ahmad Hemmati, the commission's spokesperson said at the meeting.
This means that if the government concludes that a park ranger involved in a conflict had abided by the law, it would bear the financial costs incurred by the ranger, from legal fees to possible compensation demanded by the family of a poacher because of bodily harm or loss of life, ISNA reported.
The bill also states that the Expediency Council's directive on government-sponsored insurance schemes such as liability or medical insurance should apply to park rangers and their families. Since the murder of three park rangers in two separate incidents in one week in June 2016, environment officials and activists have gone to great lengths to provide better legal protection to park rangers.
Reportedly, 120 park rangers have been killed and 150 have been injured by poachers and offenders over the past four decades. The loss would have been averted in 70% of the cases if they had been provided with adequate protection.
Still Victimized
The bill was gathering dust in parliament until lately, when three park rangers were injured in a gunshot attack during a struggle with poachers in Dez National Park in Khuzestan Province.
According to a report by ISNA, four armed illegal fishers immediately started shooting at the park rangers, after they found themselves caught during regular patrols.
"The injured guards, including the head of the national park were transferred to the nearest hospital," Shahriar Asgari, head of the public relations office at the provincial office of the Department of Environment, said.
A few days earlier, another park ranger in Khorramabad, Lorestan Province, was attacked and injured by illegal loggers who used their axes and wooden sticks against him.
The victims have survived but the recurrence of such incidents alarmed lawmakers to take more swift action in reviewing the bill.
