Salman’s films taken off Jodhpur theatres

The movement led by the Bishnois has gradually found supporters in all communities and animal lovers with the details of star’s adventure trickling out.

An eyewitness has said that on September 26, Salman Khan shot a chinkara — the state animal of Rajasthan — slit its throat with a knife and wiped his hands on the ground, leaving the others to cover the blood with sand. Harish Dulani, the man who drove Salman Khan, Satish Shah and others 40 km from Jodhpur to Mathaniya, has said Salman fired from his .32 rifle and missed thefirst two times. Satish Shah, he alleged, egged Salman on — Zara jam ke lagao.

The third bullet, the eyewitness says, found its mark on one of the chinkaras in the herd. He, Dulani adds, shot another one that night.

Around 2.30 am Yashpal, one of the four persons accompanying Salman, took the team to a small hotel owned by Mohammad Hassan. The kitchen was opened and the venison prepared and eaten. Both have been arrested.

As the details of the shikars’ spread, the anger among people is growing. “The law will take its own course. But we are trying to punish Salman in our own way. We will see to it that movies starring Salman Khan are never seen in the whole of Rajasthan,” says Ram Singh Bishnoi.

“We are soon going to call a meeting of the various film distributors in Rajasthan and request them not to buy his movies,” he adds. This would be small tribute to pay for the lives of animals lost, the Bishnois feel.

With the arrest of the cine stars, the focus has also shifted to theregular hunting of endangered animals like the blackbucks and the chinkaras. Mehar Chand Bishnoi says that a delegation of the Bishnoi community met divisional commissioner Lalit Pawar, the officials of the Forest department on this issue and also the local police.

“We have requested them to take this up in the right earnest and stop the killing of our animals. We have also given a complaint that owners of small 3-star hotels have been organising elaborate shikars’ and even providing vehicles and arms,” he says.

Akshay Kumar Mishra, superintendent of police (SP), Jodhpur, admits that they do have information about hotel owners organising shikars.

“We have been receiving complaints and are looking into them,” he says. He also says that they have decided to identify vulnerable areas and organise joint patrolling by the forest department and police.

Forest Range Officer Om Joshi says that a recommendation has already been sent to the government to declare the forests of western Rajasthan asprotected and develop them into wildlife sanctuaries.

“If something is not done quickly, we will soon find the endangered species disappearing. As it is there has been drastic depletion in number of black bucks. Now the ranches in Texas have more black bucks than Rajasthan. Probably Salman Khan should go there,” says Mahender Vyas, a wildlife activist and member of the central committee which probed the incident.