The Haridwar police arrested a member of the Sapera community with a leopard pelt on Wednesday. This arrest has further elicited focus on the need for clamping down on wildlife crime by members of communities traditionally involved in poaching and other wildlife crime. Earlier last month, pangolin scales, porcupine meat and a dead civet had been seized from members of the Sapera community.
According to the police, they received a tip-off about a person carrying a leopard pelt in a black bag waiting for a bus to Dehradun at Chandi Chowk on Wednesday. On reaching the site, the police spotted a person with a bag who began walking swiftly towards Dehradun on seeing the police. Suspecting his actions, the police nabbed the person who identified himself as Vikas Nath, a resident of Chandighat Majra.
The police found a leopard pelt measuring more than nine feet in length with its paws intact and some of the claws removed and some left in the paws. On being questioned about the pelt, Vikas Nath said that the leopard pelt had been procured from the jungles of Shyampur bordering the Rajaji national park. The price of the pelt was placed at about Rs 12 lakh, said the police.
Wildlife activists point out that this seizure has only affirmed the need for improving wildlife security in the Terai region especially around the Rajaji national parks. Activists have been pointing out for years now that some residents of Sapera Bastis in various parts of the Terai region are actively involved in poaching and other wildlife crime.
Earlier on November 3, a police Special Task Force team had arrested Sapera Basti, Bhaniawala resident Mukesh Nath alias Kanhaiya with 10 kilogram scales of pangolin listed in the Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act. later on November 9, acting on inputs provided by TRAFFIC, the anti-poaching cell of the Forest Department had nabbed five residents of Sapera Basti, Rispana, from Asharodi range in Dehradun forest division with one roasted porcupine apart from the intestines of the porcupine, one dead civet and other items.
Members of the Sapera community live in dozens of settlements dotting the Terai region from Chidiapur in Haridwar to the Kalsi forest division. Their knowledge of and access to wildlife is also exploited by bigger poachers to trap or poach wildlife ranging from big cats to reptiles and birds.