One man was arrested with three leopard pelts in a joint operation conducted by the Champawat police special operation group and the forest department.
The latest seizure of leopard pelts has once again elicited focus on the cause for concern regarding wildlife security in the state. According to information provided by the police, a man identified as Hoshiyar Singh, hailing from Satkula village under the Manch thana in Champawat district was caught with three leopard pelts near the Chalthi Pul following a joint operation conducted by the SOG and forest department personnel.
The latest seizure of leopard pelts appears to be part of a series of similar seizures which have been made at different times and locations across the state especially during the past few months.
About twelve day ago, the Uttarakhand police special task force caught two men with three leopard pelts in Haldwani. Before start of the process of the Vidhan Sabha election, wildlife activists had expressed concern about the level of wildlife security considering the government machinery focusing mainly on conducting the Vidhan Sabha election 2017 and forest department staff also being deputed to poll duty. Whether the latest seizure of leopard pelts is connected in any way to the election period has not been ascertained but activists once again cite the seizure as a sign of the deteriorating state of wildlife security in the state especially when it comes to wild animals like the leopard, which are also involved in human-wildlife conflict scenarios.
It should be mentioned here that increasing human population, demographic changes caused by migration, depletion of prey species poached by humans in the jungle and wildlife habitat fragmentation are among the factors which have continued to fuel human-wildlife conflict in Uttarakhand for years now. Activists have repeatedly expressed concern stating that the wildlife crime nexus is capitalising on human-wildlife conflict and other aspects including political issues in order to continue poaching across the state with the authorities yet to achieve much progress towards prevention of poaching and other wildlife crime. International wildlife crime syndicates have been exploiting the human-wildlife conflict scenario in Uttarakhand to goad villagers into killing wildlife including leopard, deer and wild boar among others.