The State Forest Department is investigating the possibility of informants working for NGOs being involved in actually encouraging poaching of leopards and other wild animals. This line of action was taken following the involvement of a seasoned criminal in the seizure of leopard pelts including one from a recently poached feline and arrest of two persons from Mussoorie. Meanwhile, the Wildlife Trust of India vice chairman Ashok Kumar has stressed that if investigations prove that anyone working as an informant for the WTI is abetting poaching, then the service of the person will be terminated and the person will be handed over to the authorities to face legal action.

It will be recalled that acting on a tip off from informants, the Mussoorie forest division staff had recently nabbed a total of three persons for their involvement in the poaching of two leopards and attempt to deal in the pelts of the two felines. According to official sources, one of the two leopard pelts was more than a year old while the other pelt seemed relatively fresh which has elicited focus on the possibility that this leopard could have been poached after the person who acted as informant encouraged the villager

concerned to supply a pelt. The informant believed to be behind the seizure and also suspected of encouraging the villagers to supply a fresh leopard pelt, Bhagat Ram has a criminal record of involvement in smuggling of liquor and narcotics. He is believed to be the informant behind many other wildlife commodity seizures in Chakrata and Dehradun during the past couple of years. During April this year, he was detained with two leopard pelts by the police in Himachal Pradesh while trying to cross into Uttarakhand but later released. On condition of anonymity senior Forest Department officials also acknowledge that there is a probability of competition between wildlife NGOs causing their informants to encourage villagers to poach wild animals so that the number of seizures can be increased. Increase numbers of seizures of wildlife commodities help the NGOs in eliciting funds from national and international sources.