M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Jan 20: The forest officials here are confused over the order issued by the PCCF (Wildlife) cum Chief Wildlife Warden, Shashikar Samanta, on January 18 which permits killing/wounding of the leopard ‘in good faith’ and ‘strictly in defence of themselves or of another person’.
Sources said that the order is most cautiously drafted with a view to not invite any hue and cry by the wildlife experts and animal lovers.
A forest official requesting anonymity said that it is the right time now to revise or amend the January 18 office order and in place give a straight order to kill the leopard.
“The facts and circumstances all go against the animal since it has become a determined killer of humans as well as of small pet animals and is being seen as a sprinting terror to all,” the forest official said.
Notably, in 2017, there was an identical case in Sahibganj where a wild elephant had caused immense stress and anxiety in the corridors of wildlife management by killing 14 people in Jharkhand and Bihar.
The then principal chief conservator of forests and chief wildlife warden of Jharkhand Lal Ratnakar Singh had issued an order permitting Hyderabad-based hunter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan and his son Asghar Ali Khan to ‘shoot’ the tusker and report to him.
Moreover, It was also written in the letter that the chief wildlife warden was satisfied that the rogue elephant can’t be tranquillized, engaged, captured or translocated and hence under the relevant section of the wildlife protection act, the two Khans were ordered to shoot the elephant.
Notably, there was no fuss in the letter in regard to the shooting of the rogue wild lone tusker in 2017 unlike in regard to the killing or wounding of the man-eating leopard in the jungles of Garhwa district.
Man-animal conflict expert Nawab Shafath Ali Khan when asked how he had done with the rogue elephant in Sahibganj in 2017, said that he had the order of the chief wildlife warden to shoot the elephant and that was done accordingly as the elephant had killed 14 people in Jharkhand and Bihar.
“Here we are after the leopard in the jungles of Garhwa. It has not been sighted since January 17. We are trying to track it first of all. We will be scouring the fleet of the water bodies as here near the water bodies its pug marks could be found,” added Nawab.
He added that they have to track it down first as the leopard has probably gone further deep into the jungles.
