Man escapes after shooting birds in Thane

Mumbai: An unidentified man shot dead two Cormorants, a type of aquatic bird that is also consumed by some non-vegetarians, with his air gun at a spot around Thane’s Ambe Ghosale Lake on Friday afternoon. The shooter fled the spot in an apparent hurry after realising that his act had alerted the locals, leaving behind his air gun, pellets and the dead birds in a cabin of a civic watchman who was away on lunch-break.

The locals alerted a Thane-based NGO, Animal Plant Welfare Trust (APWT), which further alerted the police and the Thane forest department. When contacted by The Asian Age, the police said it is awaiting the birds’ autopsy reports to file a case, while the forest department said it is in the process of gathering the details of the incident to register a case under the Wildlife Protection Act.

The incident took place at around 2.30 pm when a resident saw the shooter shooting the birds. He alerted the local activists and the police immediately. The shooter however, had managed to escape from the site.

“By the time we could reach the spot, the man had left. However, the resident who called us and a man who was sleeping in the cabin are witnesses to the episode,” said Yaman Tatre, from APWT. While the birds were sent for autopsy, the local police made a diary entry of the incident.  Mr Tatre further informed that the man was aboard a boat while shooting the birds. “The resident had called us silently and made sure that the man is not alerted. He still managed to escape.”

Deputy chief conservator of forest (DCF) of Thane forest department said that he was checking the case and would register a Forest Offence Report (FOR).        

“It is important to have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) between government organisations like police and forest department so that such cases are reported properly. FIR / FOR can be registered under provisions of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 which prohibits hunting of native wild species. A post mortem will be conducted as a procedural task after which the carcasses of the birds will be disposed,” said Pawan Sharma, founder of Resqink Association of Wildlife Welfare (RAWW) also assisting the forest department.