Wildbuzz | The leopard hush up

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Come winter, poachers lay notorious clutch-wire traps along game trails to slaughter herbivores and leopards. However, the wildlife field staff, on certain occasions, tend to brush the poaching incident under the carpet by ascribing chain-link fencing or other accidental contingencies to leopards getting caught. The most recent case was of a male leopard found writhing in a clutch-wire trap in the Noorpur Bedi area of Roopnagar district on Wednesday. One end of the trap was tied to the chain-link fencing protecting a farmhouse.

Though the leopard was rescued successfully by a tranquilliser gun team from Chhatbir zoo, the Roopnagar Wildlife Preservation Division DFO and Range Officer diverted attention by putting out a statement in the media the same day that the leopard had got trapped in chain-link fencing, omitting mention of the clutch-wire trap which had actually encircled the leopard around the waist. Not only this, the field staff failed to seize the wires and contraption used for the game trap from the spot. A species accorded the highest protection under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the clutch-wire trap had warranted that the incident to be treated as one of attempted poaching and registration of a case. Instead, the incident was treated as a kind of natural mishap.

This kind of an incident, of which several have taken place in the wider region over the years involving clutch-wire traps, would have been relegated to oblivion once again, thereby encouraging poachers. However, Punjab Chief Wildlife Warden RK Mishra got wind of the bungling at the ground level and he stepped in. “I saw the videos of the trapped leopard and also got feedback from my sources. I am convinced it indeed was a case of attempted poaching not merely an entanglement in chain-link fencing. I have directed the field officials to initiate an inquiry and not let the matter rest,” Mishra told this writer.

The slain skink of the squash court. (PHOTO: VIKRAM JIT SINGH)
The slain skink of the squash court. (PHOTO: VIKRAM JIT SINGH)

Lynching a skink, raises no stink

With understanding comes not just empathy but fond attachment. Ignorance promotes the very opposite, including recourse to thoughtless, murderous violence. My evening game at the Chandigarh Club’s squash court since May 2021 was, on occasion, disrupted by a little skink or legless lizard that householders label as ‘baamani’ or ‘saanp ki mausi’. We find them slithering about in our gardens and staging a furtive entry into the house.

This skink at the squash court would be found lost in the court having wandered from hiding places in the crevices. The sound of the ball thumping the wall and tin base would terrify her no end as she vainly sought an escape from infernal din. Apprehensive of her safety, I would halt the game and chaperon her to outside the court where she would scamper into a crevice, only to surface after a few weeks right in the middle of the court, befuddled, and in danger of being squashed under shoes.

As misfortune would have it, I came across my little friend on Thursday evening. She lay still, no din or looming giants (humans) would ever rouse her again. She had been bludgeoned to death by someone, apprehending her to be a venomous, snake-like reptile. Fact of the matter is skinks are a group of lizards, pure carnivores and gulp down or swallow prey (insects) just like house lizards. However, due to ignorance, slithering skinks are confused with venomous snakes and killed though they do not possess a bite toxic to humans. India is home to 62 species of skinks.

The luckless skink lay woebegone and friendless, so lonely in a brutal end. It reminded me of the poor, hungry vagabond, who had been lynched and hacked to death by a mob at the Kapurthala gurdwara recently under the false incitement of sacrilege. I did not want my friend’s body to lie so bereft. It would also encourage people to kill such creatures. I bundled her into a fallen winter leaf and placed her outside in a quiet flower bed.

RIP my dainty, innocent gal; forgive your murderers if you can, for they do not know what they do.

vjswild1@gmail.com

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