Seized chinkara almost dead

PANHALA, Nov 24: Many skeletons are tumbling out of closed cupboards ever since cine actor Salman Khan’s shooting spree in the wilderness of Rajasthan. Raja, a full-grown chinkara seized by the forest department officials during their campaign against unauthorised animal keepers, is dying at the lush Tabak Udyan here.The magnificent animal is a silent sufferer. This is a source of worry for the staff who have been on tenterhooks for the past few days waiting for help from the state veterinary department doctors.

Strengthening their vigil, especially after the Salman episode, the wildlife wing officials at Kolhapur have stepped up their campaign against unauthorised animal keepers in western Maharashtra district and recently confiscated five ducks of Russian origin, two peacocks and a peafowl from a private farm house in Kagal, near Kolhapur. Incidentally, all the ducks have been recorded by forest officials as rajhans, (swans). A vigilant honorary wildlife warden Sunil Karkare from Kolhapur also helped the forest officials seize an Indian python. The teeth of the reptile, about 150 in two rows, were found to have been extracted.

Raja, the chinkara’s eyesight has been affected and one of its screw-shaped horns is broken.There is a big wound at the base of the broken horn. The animal was found tied inside a shanty on the premises of a spinning mill in near Ichalkaranji on October 15. It was brought by a mill official for “treatment” from a self-styled veterinarian. A female chinkara was also found on the premises of the same mill which was stated to have brought in, as a companion for Raja. “The presence of a female could have made the animal to feel more comfortable,” the quack had told the forest officials. He also claimed that he did not know that government permission was needed to keep such animals.

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The raiding team was told that the animal lost its horn after it rammed into a tree and was wounded. The forest employees treating the animal however were not ready to buy the argument. He could have lost the horn to appease someone’s fancy and some money, it is felt.

Raja is currently being looked after by a forest employee, Dilip Waghvekar, and has been put in a small room.