Conservationists call for probeinto mutilation of wild animals | Bengaluru News

Bengaluru: Forest minister Eshwar Khandre’s decision to initiate a departmental inquiry into the recent unnatural death of a leopard in the MM Hills wildlife sanctuary has triggered hopes among conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts about uncovering the truth behind such incidents.In the most recent case, the carcass of the big cat was found mutilated last month.Recollecting similar incidents in the past few years, the activists suspect an organised nexus of poachers could be behind such wildlife crime.A few days before the June 26 death of five tigers in the Hoogyam forest range of MM Hills, the mutilated carcass of a leopard was discovered in the Bidarahalli area of the MM Hills sanctuary. While the incident evoked calls for strict action against the miscreants and laxity of forest officials, Karnataka has seen similar incidents over the past few years. Barring the arrest of a couple of accused in the cases, the department reportedly failed to make significant progress either in taking the cases to their logical end or by recovering the severed body parts.In April 2017, the body of a five-year-old leopard was found in the Khanapur taluk in the Londa forest range. While foresters concluded that the leopard died of ill health, its limbs and claws had been chopped, and there were no details about their recovery. Similarly, a tiger was found dead in Dec 2022 in the Barchi range of Ganeshgudi (Jagalpet) sub-division of Haliyal division. Shockingly, the head and limbs of the tiger were missing from the carcass. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) came down heavily on the Karnataka forest department in Oct 2023 for terming the death as ‘natural’ (territorial fight) and failing to investigate the case. Subsequently, the forest officials reportedly nabbed two miscreants in connection with the case in 2024, but there have been no reports on their conviction.Barely a few months after the tiger’s death, in Feb 2023, a leopard carcass was found in a similar manner at Murakwad in the Haliyal forest division. Even though investigations pointed out that a sharpshooter was hired to kill the animal, there was no news about the arrest of the suspects or the successful solving of the case. Similarly, a tiger carcass was found under mysterious circumstances in the backwaters of Ambligola reservoir in Shikaripura taluk of Shivamogga district. While the officials stated that there were pellet injuries in the tiger’s body, they refused to make the postmortem report public.Reports out of bounds for publicThe high court, while disposing of a petition relating to the death of elephants, recommended the forest department to upload copies of the postmortem reports of elephant deaths on its website. While the department complied with the directions for a few years, the postmortem reports of elephants since 2025 have been out of bounds for the public.Khandre directed the department in 2024 to submit a copy of the postmortem report to his office in every wildlife death case. However, he said Monday, “Despite such clear instructions, officials have failed to submit a report on the leopard death.”A conservationist from Shivamogga said, “If a national agency has no issues in publishing details of tiger mortality, what stops the state forest department from disclosing the postmortem details of the dead wildlife? The minister must also seek details on the progress of the investigation into the unusual death of wild animals whose body parts were mutilated in the recent past.”