Unlike the Big Cats (tigers), who are protected under the Schedule-I category of Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), the fishing cats despite being given the status of a ‘state animal’ and protected under the same Schedule-I of the wildlife act, continues to be easy prey to human brutality.
The offenders more often than not go scot-free after poaching these fishing cats, whereas the tigers hog the headlines for straying into human habitat in the Sundarbans area, forcing the forest officials to rush in, in a bid to rescue them with all alacrity and utmost care. A section of the wild life activists accused the state forest officials of inaction and allegedly letting off the hook the culprits for lack of sufficient evidence.
The incident, however, drew considerable ire from the former Union minister and environmentalist Maneka Gandhi, who not only took up the matter with concerned authorities for these endangered species but requested them to see to it that the culprits are punished. On January 21, three fishing cats were allegedly poisoned to death at Kalikapur, Bagnan, in rural Howrah.
A case, (No. 24/ 20220, dated 21.1.02) had been lodged by the Howrah district forest officials against two persons Prabhas and Prabhat Patra. But both are out on bail despite being arrested, as revealed by a Howrah district forest official. When contacted, the additional principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) Rajesh Kumar refused to comment on the issue and said he had no information about it, when this correspondent called him for his response.
The DFO, Howrah, Niranjita Mitra, too refused to speak on the incident when contacted. Meanwhile, wildlife activists are crying foul on the abject apathy of the district forest officials and demanded arrests of the accused. They claimed that the miscreants were let off the hook by lax attitude forest officials.
Jui Chakraborty, a wildlife activist said despite repeated appraisals to the district forest authorities for initiating action against the accused, “nothing happened”. According to a study conducted by The Fishing Cat Project as part of a WWF grant, at least 27 cases were reported from Howrah and Hooghly alone wherein fishing cats were found dead. Most of the cases pertained to retaliatory killings.