Nagpur, May 22: The Maharashtra government today said it would not consider it a crime if foresters shot dead poachers caught killing animals or felling trees.

“If our forest officials fire at poachers injuring or killing them, the action will not be considered a crime,” state forest minister Patangrao Kadam said in Mumbai.

The minister did not explicitly call it a shoot-at-sight order.

What it means is that the government will have to make legal provisions to give powers to open fire at poachers in such an eventuality, a senior forest official said.

“Those necessary legal protections will be put in place,” he said, “with adequate checks too.”

Guards have been booked in the past for human rights violations when they took action against poachers, Kadam said. “The government doesn’t want this to happen.”

The fine print of the government order will be clear only when it issues a formal notification, but wildlife activists have described the move as unprecedented though they say it is not easy to implement. “It will need a lot of training for the staff and regulations too, since it has wider ramifications,” a wildlife activist said.

The decision has come days after a beheaded tiger was found, its body chopped and several of its vital organs removed, at the Tadoba Andhari reserve in Chandrapur district.