Eight people, including a police constable, were arrested for illegal wildlife trade and possession of animal articles in an extensive operation over the last few months. The series of arrests started in the last week of April after the Maharashtra Forest Department and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, with assistance from Wildlife Trust of India apprehended three people in Mahabaleshwar while they were transporting a leopard skin concealed in a gunny bag.
Additionally, leopard bones, two claws and illegal guns were also seized from the accused Appa Vishnu Gaikwad, Maruti Vishnu Gaikwad and Yashwant Vishnu Kate. During the interrogation it emerged that Appa shot the leopard on January 2, 2013. Guns and knives were subsequently recovered from his residence. He then took the team to an area nearby and dug up the leopard bones.
File photo: Interrogating the accused revealed that the
leopard had been killed in January this year
The three have been booked under the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972, under Sections 9, 39, 40, 49, 51 and under Section 26 (1) b of the Forest Act. Allegedly, Appa Gaikwad had been selling bush meat for the past seven years and had apparently poached more than 200 wild animals, including deer and wild boar.
Maruti Gaikwad, the youngest of the gang, allegedly confessed to putting a number of snares in various forests so as to catch at least one animal per hunt. These crude devices are being used at an alarming rate in many jungles of the country and have led to miserable deaths of many animals. During a Rapid Action Project done in Bandipur National Park for 8 months in 2012, over 200 snares were removed just by regular foot patrolling.
After the arrest of the three men, a police constable and two others were arrested with the other two claws of the leopard after Maruti Gaikwad confessed selling it to them. There was a crackdown on all leads to more possible poached articles and in a matter of days, a completely burnt animal skin was retrieved, believed to be that of another leopard, in the possession of two of Appa’s associates. The skin has been sent for forensic testing. All eight accused are out on bail right now, with the date of the court hearing to be set soon.
