It may come as a rude shock to wildlife lovers. Not only Japanese quails are being poached and their meat sold illegally in northern part of the country on a large scale, but the meat of wild partridge is also allegedly being passed of as the meat of Japanese quail at a large number of eateries and meat shops.

What is encouraging poaching and subsequent open sale of meat of Japanese quail is lack of general awareness among authorities about status of the bird, which, in fact, is a protected bird species under Schedule IV of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

Lack of awareness is also being widely exploited by certain vested interests who were trading in the Japanese Quail meat openly after securing no objection certificates (NOCs) from the Punjab Wildlife Authorities, which, incidentally, is illegal and a violation of the Wildlife Prevention Act 1972 (amended in 2003).

Investigations have revealed that poachers, who are active in hunting of wild partridges in and around Bathinda, Abohar and in neighbouring Rajasthan, are also circumventing law and are avoiding any action by the wildlife authorities with the help of NOCs.

"They avoid detection and subsequent action by passing meat of black and brown partridge as the meat of Japanese quail, for which they usually have a ready explanation that the Japanese quail is allowed to be killed if one is equipped with the NOCs," said Dr Sandip Jain, a Ludhiana-based wildlife lover.

Official sources point out that not only the poaching and killing is prohibited, but, since Japanese quail is a bird protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, its captive breeding and sale without a licence granted under Section 48 of the Act is also illegal.

But, ironically, the bird is being widely subjected to captive breeding not only by private poultry farms but also by some universities and government-run poultry organisations in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

What is more stunning is that the meat of Japanese quail (and sometimes meat of partridges under garb of Japanese quail) is easily available in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and eateries and meat shops are selling it without having proper licences from the Chief Wildlife Warden, Punjab.

What makes the scene more interesting was that despite open trading of Japanese quail in Punjab, not a single case has been detected in the state so far.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests, it is learnt, has been receiving a number of representations from several organisations and from the Ministry of Agriculture for exempting quail-farming from the purview of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, but such requests have repeatedly been turned down on the ground that Japanese Quail (Coturnix Coturnix Japanica) is found in the wild in the North-East.

But the Ministry of Environment and Forests, in consultation with the Department of Animal Husbandry, has decided to delegate the power of issuing licences for Japanese Quail hatcheries to officers not below the rank of Assistant Livestock Officers and officers of state animal husbandry departments not below the rank of veterinary assistant surgeons.