Leopard nails land two in custody
Transportation and selling of wildlife articles, such as the skins of tigers and leopards, is still being carried out in the state, despite being pronounced illegal. The Karnataka High Court on Thursday heard the bail petition of two persons accused of buying leopard nails. They were granted conditional bail. On February 16, four persons were arrested while trying to transport tiger and leopard skins in an auto-rickshaw from the Balehonnur forest range.
One of the arrested men, Manjunath, had confessed that a female leopard had been killed by electrifying his cattle shed. The animal was then skinned and the nails removed. He sold two nails of the leopard to Ashok S. and Girish N. Accordingly, officers seized one leopard nail from each of the two accused and they were arrested and sent to judicial custody.
Both the Magistrate and Sessions Court rejected the bail application of the two men who are charged under Sec 2(16) of the Wildlife Protection Act (hunting by means of electrocuting), Sec 9 (prohibition of hunting any wild animal), Sec 39 (trading of wild animal), Sec 50 (c) (seizing any captive animal, wild animal, animal article), Sec 51 (penalties for violations of the Act) and Sec 55 (lodging of complaint in the court).
Justice K.N. Keshavanarayana, after hearing the arguments, granted bail to the two accused on the ground that the allegations of killing the tiger and leopard is against four others, that the skins were recovered from the others and not from these two, who are only accused of buying the nails. “They are entitled for bail after executing a personal bond of Rs 50,000 each with two sureties for the like sum to the satisfaction of the Magistrate," the court ordered.
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Thane, April 17, 2012
Last Updated: 02:43 IST(17/4/2012)
The leopard was a male and had died three days ago as
"We saw the body at 9.30 am on Sunday and saw that eight of its nails from the paws were missing. We decided to send the body for a post mortem to find the cause of death. We are still awaiting the report and only then can we say whether the death was suspicious," said Pradeep Shinde, forester, Thane.
Chances of poaching cannot be ruled out if the nails were cut, experts said, as the nails are used for making artefacts.
Yeoor region has around 20 to 25 leopards. Forest officials claimed this was the first death this year though earlier, too, leopards' bodies with nails or paws missing had been found in this area.
Conservationist Krishna Tiwari of the City Forest Initiative, said, "Last year, a similar leopard body with all its paws chopped off was found in Bhandup. Forest officials should investigate such cases in detail. Young leopards are often victims of miscreants in the forest. A police complaint should be registered if necessary."
Leopard caged in school after 19 hrs
After a 19-hour wait, forest officials from the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) managed to trap a leopard that had strayed into the basement of a Mulund school. At 5am on Sunday, the wild cat finally walked into a cage where a hen was kept as bait. Officials had earlier tried,
"The leopard finally walked into the trap because he was probably hungry. We caught the leopard without tranquilising it," said Sunil Limaye, chief conservator of forest, SGNP.
Limaye added that the five-year-old leopard was certified fit after a medical examination and was fitted with a microchip under his tail to monitor his movements. Following this, at 5.30pm, the leopard was released into the Yeoor forest, in the Thane side of the park.
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Indore: The unusual method used by the poachers to extricate internal organs of the leopard, whose skin was seized in Dewas on Tuesday, has baffled many the forest department. Both police and forest officers are trying to ascertain network of the poachers.
Udaynagar police (Dewas) had received information that a man was trying to sell a leopard skin in Kisangarh Fata area on Tuesday.
TI Udaynagar BD Veera laid a trap for nabbing the man and sent a decoy buyer to purchase the skin for Rs 5 lakh.
Culprit Munnaram Singh Bhilala (35), resident of Bawdikheda, landed in the police net.
He told police that he had killed the leopard by laying a trap a couple of years ago. He, however, did not specify the exact area where he killed the spotted feline.
Bhilala also did not mention the place where he hid the bones.
Veera claimed that the process adopted for extracting internal body organs of the feline was unique. The poacher had used a small cut around the neck for detaching internal organs. No other scratch was visible on the skin. A scratch-less skin of a wild animal fetches good price.
The skin is worth around Rs 25 lakh in the international market.
Bhilala was produced in the court which remanded him to custody till April 20.
Conservator of Forest Dewas BS Annigiri told DNA that the DFO had raided house of Bhilala in Bawdikheda in the morning on Wednesday but nothing concrete was recovered in the raid.
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Chandigarh: A leopard has been stuck in a 75-feet long cable-carrying pipe underneath the IAF runway here for the past 11 days.
Forest officials said frantic efforts were on in a bid to free the big cat stuck in the underground pipe at the Indian Air Force station's subsidiary runway. Officials from the nearby Chhatbir Zoological Park on Thursday laboured hard for new methods to rescue the animal after earlier efforts failed.
Chandigarh's Chief Wildlife Warden Santosh Kumar said they were hopeful that the leopard will be taken out alive soon. Over the past few days, the officials have devised several techniques, including keeping a chicken and a goat near the pipe as bait, flushing water down the pipe and bursting crackers but the leopard has refused to come out.
Experts from the Wildlife Institute of India also visited the site on Wednesday. About a fortnight back, IAF personnel had seen the animal at the station and the Wildlife Department was informed about it.
The leopard was then spotted inside the pipe under the IAF runway. "He can survive without any food for about 15 days. Though he has taken water, but the leopard has refused to take any food. We have confined him to a 25-foot area now and are hoping he will come out soon. We are trying different methods and keeping our fingers crossed," Kumar said.
He said it was not known how the leopard landed in the IAF area. "But it looks like that he has been inside the pipe on earlier occasions too," the official said, adding a team of veterinary doctors was also present at the site.
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Leopard injures three in Dindori
NASHIK: Three people were injured when a leopard attacked them in Mandane on Vani-Kalwan Road in Dindori taluka on Wednesday.
The injured are being treated at the rural hospital in Vani. After more than eight gruelling hours, the forest department managed to trap the big cat and transport it to Nehru Udyan, Nashik.
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