E-Paper
Odisha man sent to three years in jail for smuggling leopard skin
The investigating officer of the case said that this is the first time a person in Odisha has been given the maximum term permissible in a case of wildlife crime
A court in Odisha’s Boudh district has sentenced a man to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposed a penalty of ₹10,000 on him under the Wildlife Protection Act in a case of smuggling leopard skin.
The court of judicial magistrate first class Kantamal sentenced Mahendra Bhaina under Section 51(A) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, more than two and half years after he was arrested by the Special Task Force of the Odisha Police.
The convict would have to undergo imprisonment for an additional six months if he fails to pay the penalty.
“The number of cases registered and the persons arrested in the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 in India indicates that either wildlife crime is committed alone or by a small organised group. In 2016 alone, 50 tigers were poached, the highest number in the past decade and the constant depletion of wild flora and fauna in India due to uncontrolled human activities, natural habitat destruction and covert poaching activities is threatening the ecological balance,” judicial magistrate Satyanarayan Dash wrote in his order while sentencing Bhaina.
“The poaching and trafficking of wild species in the lure of money as well as fashion has wiped out a range of wildlife species that call for critical attention to tackle this menace. Therefore, there is an urgent need to check ongoing wildlife crimes, raise the number of endangered species, rehabilitate exotic/extinct species and restore natural ecosystems,” the order said.
“... as the convicted person was found with leopard skin in his possession, he deserves stern punishment which would have a deterrent effect on the society as well as the convict must be dealt with stringently and that, it would act as effective deterrent against such offenders,” it added.
STF inspector and investigating officer of the case Alekh Ch. Sethi said this is the first time a person in Odisha has been given the maximum term permissible in a case of wildlife crime. On April 28, 2021 we had seized a leopard skin measuring 4 feet in length from Bhaina at Bandhanjhulli, under Manamunda police station of Boudh district.
Earlier in January 2022, a local court in Khurda district sentenced two persons to rigorous imprisonment for six months after convicting them for smuggling leopard skin. It was the first ever conviction of wildlife smugglers in the State secured by the Special Task Force (STF), a specialised wing of the Odisha Police set up to curb the organised crime.
Though wildlife crime cases are rampant in Odisha, in almost all cases the accused are acquitted by the courts as forest department fails to provide the required evidence due to procedural errors in the investigation or due to discrepancies in evidence of official witnesses.
State Forest and Environment Minister Pradip Kumar Amat in March this year told the State Assembly that 39 cases of elephant poaching were reported in ten years. However, not a single accused person has been convicted so far.
“Not a single poacher or ivory trader has been convicted for the last 33 years. There is a minimum of three-year jail term and a maximum of seven-year imprisonment for killing any elephant since the pachyderm is protected under Schedule-1 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972,” said conservationist Biswajit Mohanty.
“With little supervision by the DFOs and lack of monitoring by the chief Wildlife Warden monitor acquittals galore. In most cases of elephant poaching and seizure of ivory, the accused secured bail few months after their arrest. Lack of prosecution emboldens the poachers to continue with their killing spree,” he added.
At the national level too, the rate of conviction in wildlife crime cases is very small. According to data available from the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and attached police authorities, over 9,253 poachers were arrested in different poaching cases during 2012–2018 in India, but the rate of conviction was just 2%.
