M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Jan 19: Jharkhand Chief Wildlife Warden Shashikar Samanta on Wednesday issued a permit to ‘kill or wound’ the man-eating leopard of Garhwa which has been frequenting the jungles of Ranka, Chiniya, Bhandarya and Ramkanda.
Notably, the big cat has so far attacked five children, killed three of them and even eaten half of the body of a human – a boy.
A three-page office order Number 05/18.1.2023 with its copy to the additional chief secretary forest, environment and climate change department government of Jharkhand, principal chief conservator of forests Jharkhand and chief conservator of forests Palamu, signed by the principal chief conservator of forests wildlife and chief wildlife warden Jharkhand Shashikar Samanta in regard to the killing or wounding of the leopard stands valid till January 31.
Moreover, the leopard is to be killed or wounded by January 31 only and in the event of not getting any desired result by the stipulated date, the permit does not speak for any more extension of time as of now.
Lagatar24.com has accessed the office order signed by the principal chief conservator of forests wildlife and chief wildlife warden Jharkhand Shashikar Samanta.
The order reads that Nawab Shafath Ali Khan and his expert team members ‘are authorised to kill or wound the said leopard in good faith’.
The killing or wounding of the leopard is to be done ‘strictly in defence of themselves or of another person in consonance with the provisions as laid in the wildlife protection act.’
Moreover, Lawyers, who studied the office order of the chief wildlife warden Jharkhand argued that Shafath Ali Khan and his expert team will have to prove two things in the event of this leopard either getting killed or wounded by Khan and his team.
The contention of the lawyers is that Khan and his team will have to elaborate or explain ‘good faith’ which is very ambiguous as for any animal that has become dangerous to human lives and has so far killed three children in Garhwa, the proposition for being or having ‘good faith’ hardly carries any legal weight.
Furthermore, ‘strictly in defence of themselves or any other person’ will mean Khan and his team to further elaborate or explain how far or how expedient it was to kill or wound this leopard before it could have harmed or killed any human life either of his own life, lives of the members of his team or lives of the common people.
The order further reads that the leopard has a pattern of the ‘nature of a deliberate and unprovoked attack with the intention to kill and eat.’
The order clearly admits that this leopard has ‘become used to hunting children in and around human habitation’.
The lawyers contended when the leopard has attained so much notoriety and dangerously harmful and fatal inflictions in terms of a deliberate and unprovoked attack, intentional killing or eating or used to hunt children then a crystal clear permit to kill it without the riders of ‘good faith’ and ‘strictly in defence of themselves or of another person’ ought not to have been imposed upon.
Sources said the office order giving permission to kill or wound the leopard has come after a long wait for the leopard to either get tempted to walk into the bait-filled automatic cages or to get drugs immobilised and despite good efforts made in all these days the leopard continued to remain evasive.
