On Thursday, the Uttarakhand high court (HC) issued notices to the state government, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), chief wildlife warden (CWLW) and director general of police (DGP) giving them four weeks to respond to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which demanded a ban on engaging private shooters to kill the animals that have been declared man-eaters.
The case was heard by the bench of acting Chief Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice Ravindra Maithani. According to the petition, filed by wildlife activist Sangeeta Dogra, more than 200 animals have been killed by private shooters in Uttarakhand since 2012. “In one case, the leopard killed was 35-days pregnant. Hunting has been banned in the country since 1970 but in these cases, sports weapons have been used by the hunters to kill animals. What is shocking is that the hunters have received licence for target practice and competition. But they are using their guns to shoot animals which is against the Arms rules,” Dogra said.
She further alleged that forest authorities have not focussed on saving the animals and instead, permits have been issued, declaring them man-eaters so that they can be hunted down.
“The procedure for declaring an animal a man-eater has been blatantly flouted by the authorities. No efforts are being made to tranquilise and capture these animals, rather the preferred mode has been to invite the private shooters and shoot these animals. The procedure laid down by the central government states that under no circumstances should an animal resorting to cattle depredation be declared as man-eater, even if it ventures close to human settlement. But in Uttarakhand, this procedure is being flouted,” the activist claimed in her petition.
The petition goes on to say that “by employing these private shooters, the authorities have not only violated the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 but also the Indian Arms Act, 1959, and Arms Rule, 2016, and therefore strict action should be taken against them.
Gauri Maulekhi, a wildlife activist and member secretary of the NGO, People for Animals (PFA) also came out in support of the points raised in the petition, saying that “the entire process as to how an animal is declared a man-eater is questionable since in most cases, the chief wildlife warden issues the same one page order without much verification of facts.” “Private shooters are most of the times trigger-happy and little is done to actually tranquilise and capture the animal.
The verification of the fact that the animal killed is the actual man-eater is also rarely done,” Maulekhi said, adding that the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines of 2018 also say private shooters should not be employed to kill man-eaters.
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