Rampant poaching in kandi belt

Jalandhar : The killing of two leopards in the Kandi belt during the past one month has not only caught the Forest and Wildlife authorities napping, but has also exposed rampant poaching in the area. While wild animals and jungle fowls are being hunted for meat, leopards and panthers (endangered species protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act) are falling prey to the poachers for black magic. In the recent two killings, the big cats were caught in wire traps laid by the poachers for the hunting animals like wild boars, sambars and hog deer in Ropar and Hoshiarpur districts. A female cub was stoned and chased by residents of Brahampur village near Nangal and it was allegedly tranquilised to death by wildlife officials in June. An adult male leopard was strangled by poachers in Khera Kalmot village of Ropar district in November with a motive to use its canines and claws in black magic. The poachers had removed three canines and 15 claws of the cat, leaving behind the carcass.

Though the motive behind the killing of a male leopard in Madariwala choe near Dholbaha in Hoshiarpur two days ago could not be ascertained, the Divisional Forest and Wildlife Officer, Hoshiarpur, Satnam Singh, said the big cat fell in the trap that was laid by poachers for animals like wild boars and sambars. The poachers, in both cases, had used clutch wires in a traditional trap to strangulate the cats to death. Meanwhile, a team of doctors from Chhat Bir Zoo that conducted a postmortem on the leopard carcass in Hoshiarpur found that the big cat died of asphyxia and brain hemorrhage. Blood clots were also found in its lungs, Chief Wildlife Warden, Punjab, Gurbaz Singh, said.

Gurbaz Singh said that an enquiry had been marked, in this case, to Satnam Singh, DFO, Hoshiarpur. He said that Secretary, Forest, had already asked the Ropar district administration to submit an enquiry report on the killing of a leopard in Khera Kalmot village by January 4. Former honorary Wildlife Warden, Hoshiarpur, Sukhdeep Singh Bajwa, said the department had registered only two cases of poaching in the past two years, even though poaching was going on on a large scale throughout the state.