Poachers kill black leopard in NNTR, set carcass afire
   Date :02-Mar-2023

kill black leopard 
 
 
Staff Reporter
A rare melanistic black leopard which was spotted in a camera trap first time a couple of years ago in Navegaon Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR), has been killed by poachers, recently.
Presence of the black leopard in Navegaon Block had come as a pleasant surprise for the wildlife lovers and forest officials. Thereafter, the black leopard was spotted near villages many times. To avoid any encounter, the villagers decided to plant snares in the forest to ‘kill’ the leopard without informing the Forest Department.
“The incident took place one month ago when the villagers decided to ‘kill’ the leopard using snares. After killing the wild animal the villagers burnt the carcass,” R Jayaramegowda, Conservator of Forests and Field Director, NNTR told The Hitavada. “We got the information about the poaching during a raid on Tuesday. We have arrested five accused for this act and also seized many items from them,” said the Field Director.
Shamlal Dhivaru Madavi, Diwaru Kolhare, Manik Darsu Taram, Ashok Gote, all residents of Mangezari village, Deori taluka, Gondia; and Ravindra Laxman Bodgewar, a resident of Palandur, Deori, were arrested by the joint team of forest staff, Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF), and Police department. The joint team seized 2 canines of tiger or leopard, three nails of sloth bear, bones, 10 teeth of wild boar, antelope of chital, thorns of porcupine, two pangolin scales, snares, one peacock, peacock feather, fishing nets, and dry meat from the huts of the accused.
The team also recovered Rs 21.49 lakh cash and country liquor costing around Rs 84,000 from the poachers.
After the successful operation, all five accused were booked under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. They were produced before the JMFC. The court granted their five days’ forest custody remand (FCR). Further investigation is on. The operation was conducted by Dilip Kaushik, RFO, STPF (Wadegaon Unit); Narendra Sawant, RFO, Kohomara; Sachin Dongarwar, RFO, Navegaon Park; Sachin Narad, RFO, STPF (Chandrapur Unit); and other staff of Forest Department, STPF, NNTR and cops. The operation took place under the supervision of R Jayaramegowda; Nikhil Pingle, SP, Gondia; Ashok Bankar, Additional SP, Gondia; Pradeep Eknath Patil, Divisional Forest Officer, NNTR; Sanket Deolekar; and Roshan Rathod.