TIMES OF INDIA
15 December 2010

Tushar Rattan | TNN

Dholbaha (Hoshiarpur): Thanks to the wildlife officials’ apathy and neglect, in a short span of one month, the apparent rampant poaching going on in the Shiwalik hills of the state has yet claimed another life of the denizen of these jungles, the endangered leopard.

This time, a male adult leopard, about 6 feet 2 inches long, has met a tragic end due to strangulation near here towards the Ram Tatwali forest stretch. The feline, which died by inches with deep injuries inflicted around its neck by the tightening of the steel wire, in an attempt to set itself free, though uprooted the trap, but died of strangulation after probably moving few yards from the site of trap-laying. The carcass, which was found in the middle of the dense forest, was along with the steel wire tightened around its neck.

Killing of leopard (Panthera Pardus Fusca), an endangered species enlisted under schedule-1 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, is a non-baiable offence with the perpetrator liable to be punished upto seven years of rigorous imprisonment with a maximum penalty of Rs. 50, 000.

Though officially, the wildlife authorities deny about these Shiwalik jungles of the state as the abode of this magnificent big cat, but ground evidences have proved this fact.

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