The Forest Department has been urged to create awareness among the people against not keeping wild animals and birds as pets and also about the penal action for such offences as per the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) 1971.
In a letter to the Chief Wildlife Warden, Odisha, Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) secretary Dr Biswajit Mohanty lamented that instead of action to stop the illegal practice of keeping wild birds and animals as pets, the Forest Department has ignored this for years, which has led to an unsavoury situation in Odisha. “Many people including educated sections of society are not afraid to imprison such species as pets. This has resulted in a thriving wild pet trade since wildlife traders have an incentive to smuggle and sell them in the open market,” the letter said.
Decrying that in the Coco case in Cuttack, a sustained public campaign over social media and other media was on to force the Forest Department to return the bird to the owner, Mohanty on the contrary urged the department for more seizures of such pets.
“Information should be sought from the public through the Toll Free number about any person who has illegally kept pets. Many people have posted in Twitter and Facebook about pet owners in their areas after the Coco case. The tip-offs received should be followed by raids, seizures and appropriate penalty and punishment,” he said.
The letter also urged that since parakeet is a most sought- after pet among others like hill myna, peacock etc, the department ought to have several rescue aviaries across Odisha for rescued / seized birds to be rehabilitated and go through a process to re-wild and then release them back in the wild.