Odisha losing its leopards to random poaching 

Wildlife activists lay emphasis on improving conviction rate  

Odisha’s Special Task Force (STF) and Forest department have together seized closed to 45 leopard skins in past two years. It indicates that 5% of the State’s leopard population has already been poached. The analysis of poaching cases reveals that the killings of big cats is taking place not only at the instance of organised crime networks, but majorly due to random hunting. 

Ever since the STF of State Crime Branch has been assigned to go after wildlife offenders, the number of detection of poaching cases has gone up. The STF on its own has seized 26 leopards skins in the last two years.  

“As we are pursuing wildlife crime cases diligently, the flow of intelligence inputs has been seamless. In 30% cases, we found criminals trading leopard skins connected to organised crimes while 70% of the cases were random killings,” Jai Narayan Pankaj, STF head and Deputy Inspector General of Police, told this reporter.  

He said, “wildlife crimes shot up sharply during the two years of COVID-19. Those residing in forest areas are involved in poaching and trading. They wait for the opportune time to trade off the leopard skins and earn quick money .”  

The STF chief said there was a local market available for leopard skins, unlike in elephant tusk trade. “We do have competent agencies that can investigate thoroughly and trace the links between local traders and international wildlife crime networks,” he said.  

The leopard population in Odisha is estimated at 800. “The current seizure of skins is just tip of the iceberg. Actual poaching of animals could be five times more. I suspect Odisha must have lost more than 200 animals during COVID time,” said Biswajit Mohanty, a wildlife activist.  

Mr. Mohanty said, “the State government must come up with an action plan to reverse the trend. The tiger population in Odisha is dwindling due to absence of strong action against criminals. We may soon confront a scenario where the State would be stripped off its leopard population.”