Wildlife campaigners slam forest officials, controversial hunter and MLA politician for ‘cheerful’ photos next to leopard shot dead
- Maharashtra forest officials, Hyderabadi shooter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan and Chalisgaon MLA Unmesh Patil have come under fire
- Officials posed for a photo next to the dead female cat which is said to have mauled to death seven people
- Campaigners have questioned why it wasn’t tranquillised and rescued
- See more news from India at www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome
Maharashtra forest officials, Hyderabadi shooter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan and Chalisgaon MLA Unmesh Patil have found themselves under fire from wildlife conservationists after a photo of them cheerfully posing alongside the ‘dangerous’ leopard they killed on Saturday night emerged.
After visuals surfaced of the dead cat being dumped in the rear of a vehicle, with the legs of the seat placed on it, topped by heavy bags, activists asked: ‘Is this how the attitude of a wildlife protection force is supposed to be?’
The female sub-adult cat is alleged to have mauled to death seven people in the last three to four months in Chalisgaon taluka near Nashik. Its last claimed victims were a boy and a 70-year-old woman.
Maharashtra forest officials posing for photos with the big cat that was shot on Saturday
Hyderabadi shooter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan and Chalisgaon MLA Unmesh Patil at the scene
A shoot-at-sight order was issued by the chief wildlife warden, AK Mishra, in November last week in response to the claims.
Mumbai-based activist, Dr Sarita Subramaniam, asked: ‘Why can’t a state like Maharashtra, which is rich in wildlife, have a trained team of veterinarians that can tranquilise a big cat in the wild. They could have rescued it and kept it in a rescue centre.’
‘Experts from nearby Tamil Nadu, Karnataka or Madhya Pradesh forest departments could have been called in to capture it alive. Why summon a shikari (hunter) like Nawab Shafath Ali Khan?’
A photo of the dead cat dumped in the rear of a vehicle, squashed by seats, also caused upset
Sport hunter Khan has been a controversial figure with his penchant for wild animals and guns. As alleged in some reports, he had been arrested by police in 1991-92 for supplying weapons to Maoists along the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border.
Dr Sarita wondered: ‘How could they allow taking selfies with the dead cat? Even as per the Wildlife Protection Act, (WPA) 1972, display of hunted animal trophies is banned. It gives out a very wrong message, especially when a government forest department is involved.’
The leopard is a Schedule-I animal as per the WPA, which serves highest protection to tigers and elephants. However, instances of human-animal conflict have been on the rise.
In several incidents, leopards have been beaten to death without provocation.
In several incidents, leopards have been beaten to death without provocation (file photos)
In February this year, a leopard was burnt to death by locals in Gujarat’s Gir-Somnath district. In another case in November 2016, videos of which went viral, a leopard was battered to death with sticks by irate villagers when it strayed into Gurugram’s Sohna district.
Maharashtra has lost 375 big cats since 2010, emerging among India’s top four states to record tiger and leopard deaths. It lost 291 leopards and 84 tigers between 2010 and 2017, with poachers killing 159, as per a Wildlife Protection Survey of India study.
Activists also raised questions on how a wild animal is declared a ‘man-eater.’
Dr Jerryl Avinash Banait, who filed several petitions in Bombay High Court to save Brahmapuri Tigress T27 cub 1, Kismat, before it was electrocuted, said: ‘A rogue wild animal cannot be called a maneater when humans have entered into its buffer zone.’