DANDELI: Taking advantage of a huge bungling in the investigation by the forest department officials of Haliyal, those who had been accused of poaching of an animal, protected under Schedule-I of the wildlife laws, have managed to secure bail.
The accused could get out as the forest officials have booked the cases under an Act that does not exist in the law books and in the Indian legal system. The cases were booked under the ‘Karnataka Wildlife Act’ and wildlife activists claim that this is done deliberately to weaken the case.
A copy of the FIR made available to Express shows that the foresters have booked cases under the Karnataka Wildlife Act.
“The foresters had to book the cases under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Instead, they have used the (word) Karnataka before the word ‘Act’, so that the accused could get bail easily. All the four accused were caught red-handed while skinning the pangolin at their village in Vitnal. The pangolins are given high protection under the wildlife laws and poaching them is a non-bailable offence,” explained a wildlife expert.
The raid on Vitnal village was conducted on September 15 by a forest team from Haliyal division and the team recovered freshly hunted pangolins. Four persons — TimnuKatrot, JyotibaDekne, BalachandreAvane and Satish Patil — all from Vitnal village, were arrested along with pangolin scales and meat.
Activists in Dandeli have said the forest team from Haliyal first booked the case under Dandeli court jurisdiction and later it was shifted to Haliyal. “It’s strange that the forest team does not know about the court and its jurisdiction. Going to the wrong court and any kind of delay in the investigation leads to doubts. The pangolin trade is an international affair and many locals from Uttara Kannada and Belagavi are being involved in it. Smugglers from Tamil Nadu, who are the main suppliers of scales to the traditional medicinal industry in China, seek scales from local poachers. Hence, it’s important that the foresters break the nexus in order to save the species,” said a wildlife activist from Dandeli.
This is not the first time that wrong Acts are referred to weaken the cases. In 2008, the foresters had caught five people along with the hunt and a single barrel rifle in Nanjangud talul in Mysuru. The foresters had booked cases under the Wild Birds and Animals Protection Act, 1951, which has no validity in the present-day legal system. All the accused who had hunted a hare and a jungle cat were let off within days of their arrest.
