DEHRADUN: The state forest and wildlife department has been caught unaware and stunned over the largest seizure of the leopard skin, seven skins and bones, from Kotdwar by district police on Wednesday. Some 15 years ago, second largest seizure of six leopard skins were recovered from the accused hailing from Ghansali village of Tehri district from Haridwar forest division.
This incident exposes the total failure of wildlife intelligence. According to senior forest official, it is also a shame for the entire forest department which despite creating such a huge network of forest divisions, deputing hundreds of officials and employees and spending crores on management and intelligence has been utter failure in protection of wildlife in the state.
The state forest minister, Dinesh Aggarwal's reaction was equally shocking, when he told TOI, "The incidents of leopard killing by people keep happening, as it is quite difficult to manage and protect such a vast forest land in the state. However I will enquire into the matter."
Dhananjay Mohan, chief conservator of forest who is also head of anti-poaching cell said, "One member anti-poaching cell can not control poaching or animal killing of the entire state without any man-power or resources. There is no intelligence wing at the state level. It is the DFOs' who have been provided resources and staff to manage and protect wildlife in their respective divisions."
The DFO Pauri, Ramesh Chand expressed ignorance saying he got no information of leopards being poisoned by the villagers in his division nor he got suspicious as there was hardly any case of human-animal conflict in this village. He said, he himself was going to the village to find out more about the matter.
Chief wildlife warden DVS Khati too admitted that it does not require facilities such as vehicles, weaponary, staff etc to control the poaching, but the strong network of intelligence which seems to be lacking in the department.
Paramjeet Singh, who had been head of anti-poaching squad from 2003-2012 agreed saying, "I caught the accused carrying six leopard skins in 2000 with the help of informers only. The strong team of informers and active patrolling can only control poaching. The poachers too kill animals with simple traps, clutch-wire or pistol, so we too don't need AK 47, gypsies or huge man power to catch them."
He further added that the villagers mostly just kill the leopards to protect their cattle and remove the skins in order to sell. They are not aware of the network behind it. The well-preserved skin might be selling for lakhs, but a villager end up earning Rs 25000 to 30,000 for one skin. He said the entire wildlife machinery is behind protecting tigers so other animals are being left out unprotected.
