Amid tiger deaths, MM Hills foresters accused of covering up leopard death; Khandre orders probe

A leopard carcass with all of its legs missing was found on June 5 at Bidaralli beat of Timmarayanakonchalu forest of MM Hills division, an activist alleged.

Bengaluru: Less than three weeks prior to the killing of five tigers,  forest officers in Male Mahadeshwara division had allegedly covered up the poaching of a leopard, prompting the forest minister to order a probe.

In a letter to the chief wildlife warden, activist Dinesh Kallahalli said a leopard carcass with all of its legs missing was found on June 5 at Bidaralli beat of Timmarayanakonchalu forest of MM Hills division.

“While the animal was a victim of a poaching incident, a criminal offence under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the incident has also shown clear negligence, dereliction of duty and cover-up by officials of the forest department,” Kallahalli said.

He alleged that the standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for postmortem has been violated.

“The postmortem in this case was done without the presence of a recognised non-government organisation and experts. This is in violation of the SOP and the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change,” the complaint said.

Noting that leopard was a Schedule 1 animal that enjoys high protection, he demanded action against officials for violating the ‘advisory on handling mortalities of Schedule 1 species’ issued by the ministry.

Kallahalli told DH that had the department woken up after the leopard killing, the vigilance could have helped in preventing the poisoning of the five tigers.

To a question, Chamarajanagar conservator of forests T Heeralal said the leopard death was unrelated to the tragedy of last week. “We are investigating the case,” he said.

Forest, Ecology and Environment Minister Eshwar Khandre wrote to the department’s additional chief secretary, ordering a probe by an officer of additional principal chief conservator of forests rank.

“This office has received information that the leopard was killed for its claws and that officials have tried to cover up the incident,” he said.

Khandre noted that his office had previously sought an audit report on the death of any schedule-I animal. He said a report shall be submitted within seven days based on investigation and including recommendation of action against officials responsible for the lapses.