Thirty-nine panther skins have been seized from a village in Haryana's Panchkula district, officials said here Tuesday. Two people were arrested from the spot.

A team of forest and wildlife department conducted a raid at Bhairon ki Ser village in Panchkula district near Chandigarh after a tip-off late Monday.

'We laid a trap, along with the local police, and seized the skins of 39 panthers. Police have arrested two accused while six others fled, ' R.K. Sharma, divisional wildlife officer, said here.

The arrested accused, Surjan and Vairmaila, were booked under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act.

They told the police that the seized skins were not original and were of bulls and cows.

'The skins will be sent to a laboratory at Dehradun to ascertain their authenticity. The culprits purchased the skins from different towns of Punjab, ' Sharma said.

Where as the International Organisation for Animal Protection - OIPA in India and People for Animals (PFA) Haryana asked the Superintendent of Police, Panchkula and SHO, Pinjore Police station to imposed 420 IPC, 120-B and Prohibition of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955 against all accused, if skins found fake.

Naresh Kadyan,
* Representative of the International Organisation for Animal Protection - OIPA in India,
* Founder Chairman, People for Animals (PFA) Haryana,
* Master Trainer, Animal Welfare Board of India,
C-38, Rose Apartment, Prashant Vihar,
sector-14, Rohini, Delhi - 110085.
Mobile - 9813010595

Kind attention :-

1. The Director General of Haryana Police,
Panchkula.
2. The Chief Wild Life Warden Haryana,
Panchkula.

Sir,

Kindly refer to the media reports and two leopards killed by Haryana Police for no reasons, in case of Karnal leopard killing, which was killed in very hasty violating the legal provisions under section 11 of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 and SHO of Karnal Sadar Police station along with his team members open fire on the scheduled one wild animals to kill not to rescue with out any permission from the competent authority, where as this leopard was required to rescue and release back in his natural habitat but SHO along with his team members were in very hurry to kill in the absence of concerned wild life officials.
Undersigned submitted a complaint before SHO Karnal Sadar to lodge FIR for the violation of section 9 read with section 51 of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 but he reported that leopard was killed by Sub Inspector and asked me to modify the complaint and same fresh complaint was handed over to him for further necessary legal action. I am shocked to know when my Advocate Madan Pal who approach Karnal Sadar Police Station to know updates and action taken reports on my complaint but SHO refused to give updates, when I approach SHO on his mobile then he told me that he has not taken any action on my complaint nor he make any entry in rappat rojnamcha...this is very shocking and unfair, itself proved his melafide integrity and guilty consciousness.
Side by side state wildlife department constituted a committee of two officers to inquire the matter, they also failed to perform their official duties assigned to them by their seniors because this committee was remote controlled by the local Police and they stressed to collect peoples to be treated as eye witness of the crime against wild animals, where as this committee was expected to review the scene of killing, role of state wildlife department, rescue alive alternatives because killing was not a solution, specialization to deal rescue situations of wild animals, nature of big cat as well. As per information collected by us the leopard was in a room and compelled to comes out to make easy target to shoot by the SHO and his team, they can wait for wildlife officials and make arrangements to keep public away, they can review the position, alternatives to rescue alive but they failed to do and shoot the animal, where as this leopard was not a man eater and needs safe passage to go back, how and why leopard comes / left his natural habitat, position should be viewed?, as per his wild shy character wants space to hide itself but local Police failed to control mob and wild animal can't be handled with wild techniques...Police seems to be under pressure and never applied their mind and apply their skill, expertise to encounter / shoot the leopard. As per the circumstances, no body was well equipped nor well trained to handle the rescue operation, totally failure of system, coordination between Police, wildlife officials and public.
Hence a crime was committed against big cat scheduled one protected animals, part of natural food chain, which can be definitely rescued alive if concerned officials seems to be serious / sensitive towards wildlife and their duty as well. The International Organization for Animal Protection - OIPA in India in the opinion that the said committee report is not based on facts, let the concerned court of law trial and decide this crime against big cats killing not by an official like DFO Karnal being an member of committee, who seems to be offenders of a crime and these type of committee don't have authority to give clean chit to the Police action.
OIPA in India appeal you both to please remove SHO Karnal Sadar and DFO, Karnal from their present place of posting and keep away them from the investigations, direct to concerned officials to lodge FIR against SHO Karnal Sadar along with his team members for the violation of section 9 read with section 11 and 51 of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 to give justice to Indian wildlife and transparency in the system.

Regards,

Naresh Kadyan,
Master Trainer to the Animal Welfare Board of India,
Representative of the International Organization for Animal Protection - OIPA in India,
Chairman, PFA Haryana, 30 / 347, Dev Colony, ROHTAK - 124001.
Mobile - 09813010595.