Dead man among 3 booked for leopard’s death in Hoshiarpur

Hoshiarpur, July 24
Punjab Wildlife officials have registered an FIR against three residents, Gurdial Singh, Piara Lal, and Ashwani Kumar, of Khangwari village for the death of a leopard on Friday. Khangwari village falls in the Dholbaha forest range.
A case against the three farmers has been registered at the Gardhiwala police station. One of those named in the FIR, Piara Lal, died over five years ago. Angry villagers took up the matter with sarpanch Naresh Kumari this morning.
Talking to the Tribune on the phone, Naresh Kumari said that in their haste to register a case, the Wildlife officials had booked a dead man..
Former honorary wildlife warden Gunraj Singh, who had video-graphed the entire rescue operation on Friday, held the Wildlife officials solely responsible for the death of the big cat. “A criminal case should be registered against the erring Wildlife officers instead,” he contended.
“I plan to file a writ petition in court against the department that failed to save the leopard. The injured beast struggled for survival for almost 14 hours but the ill-equipped, unskilled officials remained busy on the phone for instructions from the bosses,” claimed Sukhdeep Singh Bajwa, former honorary wildlife warden, Gurdaspur.
Punjab Chief Wildlife Warden Gurbaz Singh was not available for comment. The Divisional Forest Officer (Wildlife), Hoshiarpur, Satnam Singh, said the FIR had been registered against the farmers on whose land the trapped leopard had died. “As the land still belongs to Piara Lal on official papers, so his name too was included in the case,” he explained.