West Champaran: Circle officer flouts Wildlife Act rules, keeps monkey at residence

In gross violation of the Wildlife Act, a circle officer (CO) in West Champaran district reportedly kept a baby monkey tied to a rope at his official residence in Gaunaha block of the district

In gross violation of the Wildlife Act, a circle officer (CO) in West Champaran district reportedly kept a baby monkey tied to a rope at his official residence in Gaunaha block of the district. The revelation came to the fore on Tuesday after a man wrote to chief minister Nitish Kumar in this regard.

HT Image

Monkeys are a protected species under Section II of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

In his letter dated July 13, 2021, one Sudist Kumar Khatayit, a resident of Salempur village of Gaunaha block, apprised the chief minister of the alleged atrocities committed on animal ill treatment meted out at the hands of CO Amit Kumar.

“When I could not contact the CO after doing the rounds of his office for past one month , I approached him at his residence. Instead of resolving my issue, he threatened to make me dance like the monkey he had held captive,” Khatayit wrote in his letter, a copy of which is with HT.

When contacted, the Gaunaha CO admitted to having kept a monkey with himself. “The monkey was brought and stayed with me for about an hour. All this was done to take a picture with the animal,” said the CO, refusing to divulge identity of the person he brought the monkey from.

He, however, said that he got the animal “from a tribal living near a temple”.

Wildlife conservator and field director of VTR, HK Rai, said, “The Wildlife Act prohibits from domesticating monkeys, a protected species.”