CM Jairam urged by Nature Watch India to reunite caged leopard with its cubs

Shimla, Nov 25 (UNI) A pro-animal and wildlife protection group Nature Watch India demanded Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to direct wildlife officials to release a caged female leopard, as her cubs could die without without their mother.
State Convenor of NWI Rajeshwar Negi told UNI that he has written a letter to the Chief Minister to release the captured female Leopard kept in the rehabilitation center of Tutikandi since November 18.
”Two to three cubs required reunion and rehabilitation with its cubs as the Leopard was caged by state wildlife authority for alleged killing of a boy on November 4, 2021 in Shimla without ascertaining its involvement in the killing,” he alleged.
The Additional PCCF (Wildlife) Anil Thakur told UNI that they have not received the ct scan report of the female leopards and it is not ascertained whether the caged animal was responsible for killing of the boy or not.
Responding to the query about reunion of the lost cubs of caged female leopards, Thakur
said that search is underway in the forest with help of trap camera and wildlife officials to trace the astrayed cubs after their mother was caught on November 18 by the wildlife authority and team of expert from the Dehradun Wildlife Institute recently.
Negi alleged that action of the officials was against Section 18 and 4 of the Wildlife Proection Act 1972 and under the prescribed Wildlife protocols and procedures of the National Tiger Conservation Authority on Leopards.
He said it was taken under the WPA 1972 and following SOPs NTCA, after the alleged killing of a six-year-old girl in the same forest on August 6, 2021, this tragedy could have been avoided from repeating. That owing partly unfamiliarity with such regulations, lack of skill in management of human conflicts with animals, and primarily because of the pressure created by the public the response to such situations by the Wildlife officials has been deplorable and unprofessional, he said.
Refuting the order passed  by the HP Human Rights Commission, a statutory
body to capture or eliminate the man eating leopard, Negi said that it has exceeded its domain.
Issuing a death warrant against the alleged Leopard a suo motu declaring it a
maneater and issuing further directions beyond its purview , that too without any
evidence- Leading to the hasty and unnecessary capture of a female leopard being caged and separated from her cubs to satisfy its directions, he said.
That neither was any attempt made to establish the identity of animal made by way of collecting and examining samples of its hair , saliva , scat from the victims body or clothes nor from the adjoining forest made , even after 4 months
He said that they neither matched the pugs of captured Female leopard to those
clicked on the camera trap recordings . Mr Negi said that captured female leopard has been frequently sighted by locals near Pagli and Kalnog but with no apparent tendencies of attacking human.
The attempts to befool the public by stating that forensic reports of
DNA markers found on the dead children are an attempt to mislead
and justify its capture, no DNA samples were collected from the body
of the girl recovered on August 6, 2021 nor any pugmarks or the
scat scan of dropping of any leopard collected in either in the wild in this cases
Demanding strict action against the Chief Wild Life Warden , the Forest
Department Chief Mr Negi demanded the CM to not allow such lapses to repeat
in the future seeking to reunion or release of captured female leopard with
her cubs.
He regretted that adequate and mandated steps had not been taken diligently by the Wildlife and forest officials before catching the female leopard.