Dharamsala, February 9

The beat officer of the forest department Des Raj who was found poaching migratory birds in Pong Dam wetland area yesterday is absconding. The wildlife personnel got hold of the gun and poached birds but they allowed the accused to abscond.

The range officer in Pong wild life sanctuary DS Dadwal when contacted said the accused went absconding yesterday. Today teams of wildlife officials raided his house and it was found locked. Later, they also visited the working place of accused officer. It was found that he had proceeded on leave.

It seems that the accused officer is trying for anticipatory bail in the case. As soon as we get hold of him he would be produced in the court, the range officer said.

He also said that the post-mortem examination of the dead bird had been conducted and pellets of gun had been recovered. It established that the birds were killed by gun shots.

The officials would now be sent the gun and recovered pellets to forensic laboratory to establish if they were fired from the same gun.

The bar headed geese are protected under schedule 9 of the wildlife act and offence is punishable by imprisonment up to seven years, Dadwal told.

Meanwhile, showing complacency in the case the forest officials have desisted even from suspending the accused officer.

The conservator forest, Dharamsala, A Rama Mohan Reddy when contacted said that they had not received any official information from wildlife department officials regarding the case. Once the official information is received action would be taken against the accused official, he said.

Interestingly, the matter of accused forest department official Des Raj being involved in poaching of migratory birds has been reported prominently in media. Despite that the conservator is stating that they are waiting for official information in the matter.

The soft attitude being adopted by forest officials in poaching cases is also illustrated by another case. About four days ago the wildlife department officials had caught a person with cooked meat of wild boar. However, since the incident pertained to the area outside the wildlife sanctuary area the case was handed over to the forest department. The forest officials let the accused go after imposing a fine of about Rs 5000.

The conservator, forest, when contacted said since wild boar was protected under schedule IV of the wildlife act the offence was compoundable.

However, the wildlife experts said that in such cases the intention of poacher should be taken into consideration. Under the wildlife act the wild animals are state property.

In the said case the alleged poacher was caught cooking meat of wild boar that spelled his intensions. However, forest department officials let him go with light fine.