BHUBANESWAR: For two to three months, the deaths of domestic sheep in a particular style under mysterious circumstance in Niali are going unabated, spreading panic in the area. It is not yet known who the real culprit is. The modus operandi of the criminal is quite peculiar and quite unknown.
The criminal usually kills the sheep at night and eats the liver of the animals after opening the chest. The local forest department and police are at a loss and are trying hard to nab the culprit, but so far in vain.
A total of 300 sheep have been killed so far of the people, who are generally poor and downtrodden. The economically poor people of the villages, specially, who keep cattle like sheep, goats, pigs, cows, etc, besides ducks and fowls for livelihood, have been hard hit.
There are some miscreants, who are spreading news through social media with a picture of an imaginary demonic creature, who is killing the sheep in the area. The people in general in the area are innocent and are economically unstable, who easily believe the versions of these people. The State administration also fails to book the culprit hunter. If we examine the whole matter, it will be seen that, the State administration is only inquiring the matter of hunting of the sheep, but not investigating the whole matter scientifically, logically and technically.
The State Forest Department should be active to book the culprit creature, which is causing colossal loss to the poor people of the locality. To detect the animal and book the same is very easy, provided sincere efforts are taken.
Every criminal either a man or an animal has a modus operandi, which can give a handle to the investigator to trace the offender. First of all, we should study the ecological environment of the area concerned.
The Niali areas is almost a wooded area having bushes, shrubs and bamboo forests with uneven and undulating topography with ravines etc; which favour mostly to the animals like wolf, hyena, jackal, fox and wild cat, which are meat eaters either of live one or dead animals.
Other than wolf, the animals like hyena, jackal, fox and wild cat live on small animals, birds and rodents etc for their existence or collect dead bodies for their food from the nature. Niali is very close to the capital city and it is very easy to collect food for them from the offal of domesticated and poultry birds of this area used by human beings for their kitchens. The wolf is strictly a carnivore when other animals are carnivorous-cum-scavengers. These animals always associate the people of localities to clean the environment. They are good friends of human beings who keep a balance over the rodent populations, which damage the crops of human beings.
Every criminal leaves clues through its “modus operandi” for detection of crimes. (1) First of all its foot prints, the foot of one species varies always from that of the other species. (2) The style of capturing the victims. In case of wolf, the animal always breaks or smashes things at the spot to an undisturbed secluded place to devour peacefully without interferences of anybody, but when such chances are not possible or available, it takes its meal at the spot itself. The chest is where soft bones, the liver and other fleshy portions are present. The wolf itself is a nasty eater because it is a dog. The dog always takes the offal. But the big cats, like the Royal Bengal Tiger and lion are clean eaters. They do not eat the dirty or offal parts. Particularly, when it hunts it leaves several evidences like pug marks, the hairs of the furs of the coat, which it sheds during hunting exercise etc. The method of hunting and particularly of the saliva contained wounds on the preyed animals can establish the facts as to who the real culprit is. Over and above the camera trapping of the culprit can easily detect the hunter. Hyena leaves in a pack, but not found lone in wild condition. This is quite a weak animal as compared to wolf. Its hind part is quite weak.
The hind legs are smaller than front legs. It has no definite hunting style. It usually attacks the prey from the back. The hyena can always be detected from their foot prints. The pugmarks of the front legs of the hyena are quite bigger than the hind legs. Hyenas are always found in the surroundings of the villages which prefer to live in the woody lands of the villages. Usually it is a scavenger and helps man to clean the environment like jackals, country dogs, foxes etc. It keeps control over rodents and protects the agricultural field from the rodents. In case of Niali sheep deaths, the hyena cannot be made responsible. The total length of the animal is 5 feet, height is about 3 feet, weight goes up to 40 kg. It generally moves for hunting in group. The foot print is uneven and oval. The main food of the hyena is the dead animals or those killed by bigger animals like the Royal Tiger or by the other big cats. The Royal Tiger becomes puzzled in the presence of group of hyenas. So the forest staff need to be field-oriented to detect the culprit in Niali. The innocent should not be punished to please the Government.
(The writer, a former senior Forest Department officer, is an environmentalist)