The death of a two-year-old female leopard, who was electrocuted in Sohna’s Lala Kherli village, Gurugram district of Haryana on Thursday, after the animal got ensnared in an overhead high-tension power cable, has raised several questions over functioning of forest department (wildlife) officials as well as actual implementation of government’s guidelines for the safety of wildlife.
The Female leopard could have been saved, had department officials followed the department’s own guidelines and removed trees located below high-tension power cable.
Located in the foothills of the Aravalli range, the outskirts of Lala Kherli village are densely populated with wildlife, with locals claiming frequent sightings of jackals, nilgai, peacocks and wild pigs. According to villagers, the wild animals often drink water from ponds, especially in summer.
Sources said that as per the department’s guidelines, to save the wild animals, trees below the high tension wires should be removed so that no animals could climb up the trees. Moreover, around half dozen leopards died due to various reasons in Gurugram over the last two years.
Leopard deaths are typical during this time of the year, as they stray away from the forests in search of water, leading them closer to human habitation. Around the same time last year, a leopard was beaten to death in the vicinity of a water body in Gairatpur Bas village.
Shyam Sundar Kaushik, district forest officer (wildlife), Gurugram said that leopards can climb the trees. They even climb up trees with their food. The Female leopard climbed up the tree and was electrocuted to death. This is the first case wherein leopard died due to high tension wires. He denied any negligence on his part regarding the issue.
Kaushik said that that autopsy results confirmed that the leopard had died as a result of electric burns, which left parts of her body, including her mandibles, severely burnt. The animal was cremated near Sultanpur National Park on Friday.
The leopard was first discovered by Satvir Singh, a resident of Lala Kherli, around 6.15 am on Thursday, while he was walking to a nearby temple (where he is a caretaker), about a kilometre outside the settlement.
A senior department officer said that holistic approach needs to be adopted to find out the reason of death of leopards in Gurugram region. Why Leopards are changing their place frequently. There might be various reasons of changing their locations frequently in the forest area.
They might leave their designated area in search of water as summer season is on or in search of food. Or they might come to near residential areas to protect themselves from poaching. Instructions have now been given to officers to ensure that there are no trees under high tension wires in their jurisdiction.
A Chandigarh based wildlife researcher said that there are guidelines to keep animals such as elephants, tigers, lions, sloth bear, deer and bird species away from high tension wires. Many animals and bird species fallen prey to these high-tension wires, that too within their own habitat and lose their life.
But unfortunately the department officials are not properly implementing rules. As per reports from across the country, elephants, tigers, leopards, sloth bears, peacocks, monkeys and flamingos are being electrocuted in inside forests each year, as they come in contact with high-power tensioning wires due to poor implementation of government’s guidelines to save animals and bird species.
Researchers said animals were more at risk now, as the Centre is sanctioning development projects in protected wildlife territories. Animals are being forced out of their natural habitat and this is leading to man-animal conflict situations or death owing to man-made activities, the researchers said.
The first is accidental electrocution, taking place in the absence of proper maintenance of electric lines passing through protected forest areas and poor implantation of necessary guidelines by the department officials. The second, deliberate electrocution by poachers who lay wires to kill animals and lastly, there is the issue of man-animal conflict, where animals trespass into farms close to forest areas that farmers protect with high-voltage electric fences. Most of these fences are illegal
The Union environment ministry had earlier issued guidelines to avoid animal deaths from electrocution by power transmission lines. To prevent death of animals in the forest areas due to electrocution by distribution lines, in the forest area underground cable should be installed. But that is not so.