Leopard death: HC imposes Rs 2K fine on forest dept

[Mrudul Godbole]

Leopard death: HC imposes Rs 2K fine on forest dept
Jul 13, 2011, 10.17pm IST

NAGPUR: Taking serious cognisance of a leopard's death, due to expired medicines that were used to tranquilise it, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Wednesday levied a fine of Rs 2,000 on the concerned forest officer. The said officer has been asked to deposit the amount before Friday.

A division bench comprising justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Pramod Kode came down heavily on the forest officials for death of the animal due to negligence. The court's missives came while hearing a plea of Ramvilas Sharma of Kamptee and Bhupendra Singh Chandel of Nagpur. They prayed for directions to the government to constitute an independent committee to probe the matter and initiate departmental proceedings against the guilty. They also demanded to initiate criminal proceedings against the guilty for killing the beast.

Last Thursday, the forest department made a startling disclosure, admitting that expired medicines were used to tranquilise a full-grown leopard on May 26, 2007. The animal died after being rescued from a well in Fukeshwar village near the city.

The bench then appointed a court commissioner OW Gupta to inspect the stocked medicines in the Seminary Hills office and also to check the records of register. During his visit, it was found that stock register was not maintained properly while expired medicines were kept with normal ones. There were no separate records for both types of medicines. These findings invited the judges' wrath on the department officials.

Earlier, the respondents tried to justify that post-mortem report of the dead leopard contending that the animal died due to shock. "The lungs as well as heart, liver, spleen, kidney and brain showed congestion, which occurs due to shock. Therefore, it cannot be said that the death of the leopard had occurred due to expired medicines," the forest department counsel M Badar argued.

The PIL alleges that no veterinary doctor was present at the spot when the animal was tranquillized. Those who shot the dart were untrained and of the four darts they shot, two hit the ground while remaining two hit the leopard near the lungs and spinal cord killing it instantly inside the well. As per law, darting procedure is to be conducted in presence of a registered veterinary doctor. In case of failure, there is a provision of fine up to Rs 5,000 or six months imprisonment for violation.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

WITHOUT PREJUDICE.It exposes how unskilled, untrained Forest Personnel are being deployed to act in critical situation. When Expired Tranquilisers were used,contibutory Negligence is Apparent.Had there been any proper Audit and Inspection System in place, these Expired Medicines would have been removed and destroyed as Dead Stock. Hon'ble High Court has taken cognizance of the the entire episode and imposed Penalty.SaktiWild