The
wildlife department in Gurgaon has finally admitted to the poaching of
leopards in the Aravalli region surrounding the district.
Mail
Today had reported on March 15 that leopards were being poached in the
Aravalli range and that one of the dead cats was found nearly 200 meters
away from a farm house named Aravalli Retreat. District officials,
however, were in denial mode.
After
denying the killing of the big cat for the last 15 days, the wildlife
department officials have now also admitted that at least five other
leopards have been killed in the region in the last month.
Kanwar
Pal, inspector of the wild life department of Sohna range in Gurgaon,
on Tuesday visited the site where the dead leopard was found and
admitted that the leopard was killed in the same area.
“During
inspection, it appeared that a leopard had died in the same area nearly
a year ago as well. The spot is not very far from the farm house where
poaching of leopards was suspected to be going on,” Pal said.
The
wildlife inspector has also visited the staircase of the farmhouse
which leads towards the Aravalli forest, where wild animals generally
come to drink water.
The
stairs and iron barricades in the area have allegedly been constructed
on non-cultivable land. That incident has raised questions on the role
and responsibility of the wildlife department that, until very recently,
had no knowledge about endangered wildlife being poached in te area.
Meanwhile, villagers have claimed that the actual number of leopards killed is much higher than the official count.
Notably,
two big cats were found dead around the same areas just three months
ago and the wildlife department was informed about the same.
The officials had taken away the bodies of the animals but denied any incident of poaching, citing lack of proof.
When
contacted, divisional forest officer Kulvinder Singh had even tried to
hush up the matter by saying no wildlife inspector had submitted a
report in the matter.
The
wildlife department had earlier claimed that one leopard was found dead
in the Classic Golf Resort in April 2014. During investigation
following that claim, officials had found three more carcasses outside
the golf course.
Another leopard was killed in a road accident in Sahrawan village on NH 8 near Maneser on November 15, last year.
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