Srinagar, January 28
While occasional hunting by celebrities invite howls of protests and often result in their prosecution elsewhere, yet poaching of migratory birds in the famous wetlands of Kashmir for their flesh goes almost unnoticed.
"Poaching is a very potent threat to these birds. The elite class of our society take pleasure in their hunting and it's routine for them to go scot free if they are caught," wildlife wetland warden Abdul Rauf Zargar told The Tribune. And it's not often that his staff are able to nab them.
Due to lack of any support from the police, poachers often manage to run within the sight of wildlife officials, at times leaving their guns behind. Statistics reveal that they have seized 15 guns and 40 killed migratory birds this year so far while number of accused nabbed is not more than two. It does not help that they get out on bail with their guns returned to them without much of a bother. If anybody has been convicted, which can mean up to six years in jail, Jargar says then nobody knows it.
Officials say their biggest handicap is absence of any cooperation whatsoever from the police, who are supposed to assist them in nabbing poachers. "If anything, cops help the accused who are often influential people with right connections," an official said. In a place torn by two decades of strife, the safety of bird is not really a priority for the police. If the state's wildlife Act has stringent punishments for bird-killing, it remains largely on paper.
Even courts are largely lenient on the accused and grant them bail and release their guns immediately. Jargar, who is said to have taken keen interest in making wetlands like Hokersar and Hygam an attractive destination for migratory birds, says their exercises in checking the silting of area and preserving water have been effective.
Some experts said despite record number of migratory words arriving here, the number of species has actually gone down over the years. "It's ironical that we raised a hue and cry when Salman Khan was caught hunting while ordinary men have been poaching unchecked," Md Kareem, a local in Hokersar, said.
