PATIALA, Nov 24: A one-year-old chinkara was captured on the Patiala-Rajpura road and was handed over to the Wildlife Department authorities here today.Punjab Shiv Sena president Vijay Kapoor told ENS today that on Friday night he spotted a deer-like animal in the middle of the road near the old octroi post, hardly 200 mts from the main bus stand. He stopped his car and with the help of his driver, he put the animal in his vehicle.Kapoor said that even as he decided to approach the police and wildlife authorities for the safe custody of the animal, he left it at the Police Lines residence of his gunman, who looked after it for the night.Yesterday morning, he contacted the director of the Wildlife Department at Chandigarh, the local Deer Park authorities and also informed the police about the animal.Kapoor said it was only when the Wildlife Department authorities visited the spot that it was established that the captured animal was a chinkara. The wildlife authorities at Chandigarh had directed the Patiala Deer Park Zoo staff to take custody of the chinkara immediately.P.C. Atalia, farm manager of the Deer Park, talking to The Indian Express, said the chinkara was a highly endangered species and was listed as a special animal in the Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. This meant that it was in the protected category of lions, panthers and leopards.Expressing dismay at the chinkara being caught in the city, he said that it was not possible for this animal to reach Patiala from its neighbouring habitat of Haryana and Rajasthan. It is found in the plain sandy areas of Bhiwani, Jaipur and Jaisalmer.Atalia said the chinkara was sexually mature, it had a strap around its neck neck and it appeared that it was being kept as a pet by someone. Moreover, he said, it was behaving like a pet and was very docile. Chinkaras are otherwise wild and kept away from humans.Atalia said it was possible that the chinkara may have been smuggled in by some Army men as they keep going for exercises in Haryana and Rajasthan. It may have been brought to the city in some Army vehicle which are not checked by the police at the check points.Atalia said the Patiala Deer Park has six chinkaras, two males and four females. He said chinkaras hit the headlines after some film stars were booked for hunting them in Jodhpur area of Rajasthan. May be, the owner of this chinkara got panicky and decided to let it off, he said.
