Wildlife poaching has reached alarming proportions in Uttarakhand. Forest sources have confirmed that a tusker and a Himalayan Black Bear lost their lives in poaching within a week. Tragically, the incident happed a month after a tiger was killed by poachers.

A few days ago, Badrinath forest division officials had arrested a poacher and seized a leopard skin from him, while a young leopard died during a rescue operation three days ago.

Sources said that the Himalayan Black Bear, a rare species of Himalayan snow cover area, was shot about five days ago. The body of the bear was recovered on Thursday. The gall bladder was missing from the carcass, said the officials, adding that the bear’s death is being investigated.

On July 20, a patrolling team of the department discovered the body of an elephant, with one of its tusks missing from its body, in Chokham-Dugadda range of Lansdowne Forest Division. Sources said that the pachyderm had died nearly 10 days ago; a fact that has been confirmed by the post-mortem examination report.

A Forest department source said that the dead tusker had already shed one tusk which was found by them. The second tusk was intact till the last few days of the pachyderm’s death. It indicated that the tusker was poached for the tusk.

In a third evidence of the rising graph of poaching in the State, Badrinath forest division officials arrested a poacher with a leopard skin on June 19. When put to interrogation, the arrested poacher revealed that he was an agent and was going to deliver the leopard skin to the client in the plains.

In another incident, a grievously injured four-year-old female leopard died even as doctors and Nainital zoo officials were trying to save it. Although the zoo officials have claimed that the feline died of starvation owing to gangrene infections, questions are being raised as to the nature of its injury which might have been due to human attack. “Recent wildlife deaths in the State are an eye-opener for the Forest department authorities. They will have to rise to the occasion in order to put hold on rife wildlife crimes in the State,” said Rajender Aggarwal of Wildlife Protection Society of India.

According to Aggarwal, almost 90 per cent of the animals rescued by the Forest department authorities have died in the past.