Do we really care about wildlife or our obsession was just limited to the fate of Salman Khan
From the time he was accused of hunting and killing a blackbuck and two Chinkaras in 1998 to his acquittal by the Rajasthan high court recently, it seems nobody is really interested beyond what happens to the actor. The day after the HC acquitted Salman Khan, the police had intercepted a gang of poachers carrying bodies of seven deer in Bikaner.
In a nation where people get killed over rumour of cow meat, no one bothered about the declining wildlife that is as crucial to the ecosystem as all flora and fauna. In 2014, Rajasthan was the top most state with a total of 219 cases registered under the Wildlife Protection Act of the total 770 cases reported across the country. It was at number three in the previous three years.
In fact, between 2001 and 2015, there were 153 cases of Chinkara and blackbuck poaching in Jodhpur wildlife division but the forest department closed 61 cases (74 out of 189 cases between 1998 and 2015) without a whimper from wildlife lovers; 65 cases have been pending in the court while 27 are under investigation by the forest department. Majority of cases pending in the court or under investigation are more than a decade old.
Not just Chinkara or blackbucks, but other animals too have been regularly killed by poachers in that region but the forest department has compounded most of them by just imposing a fine. In the last 15 years, 748 cases of wildlife crime that included poaching were registered but in more than half of them, the department let the accused go after paying minor penalties.
Ironically, such is the forest department’s attitude towards wildlife crime that of close to 900 cases, 600 were compounded after collecting fine while the department filed FIR in 150 cases and challan was submitted in just 100 cases. No one really cared about prime witness Harish Dulani during all these years.
