Furore over the transfer of a snow leopard from the City Forest National Park in Srinagar to Darjeeling
time and again wildlife activists have maintained that wildlife management in India is governed more by bureaucratic decisions than any scientific or practical reasoning. Here is one such instance.
The transfer of a seven-year-old snow leopard from the City Forest National Park in Srinagar to Darjeeling has kicked up a furore. She was only 15 days old when forest officials rescued her from the Kargil forests in a very critical condition. Rescued along with her was another cub which, unfortunately, succumbed to injuries en route to Srinagar.
After rearing the animal for the past seven years, the Jammu and Kashmir government has now decided to transfer the snow leopard to Darjeeling to make West Bengal's captive breeding programme successful, leaving its own in shambles. "We had our own captive breeding programme and we were searching for a male snow leopard to start it. But it did not materialise. Now the state has decided to shift the animal to Darjeeling where the West Bengal government is starting a captive breeding programme of this animal," says Mir Mansoor Ahmad, veterinarian of the wild life department and caretaker officer of the snow leopard.
However, the shifting of this animal has triggered a controversy within the wildlife department. The officials of the department are divided in their opinions: one section is strictly against the leopard's transfer, while another quietly acquiesces to this bureaucratic decision.
The disenchanted section of employees accuse the bureaucrats of 'co-sponsoring' the Rs 55 million 18-hole golf centre for which the park, home to the snow leopard, has allegedly been demarcated. Nearly two years ago, the state administration had declined a request made by the West Bengal government to hand over the animal. The request was turned down on the pretext that the Jammu and Kashmir government was in the process of starting its own captive breeding programme. "Now the same government has accepted the offer saying that the state has no plan to start the programme," says an official, on condition of anonymity.
In 1986, the wildlife department started the captive breeding programme of endangered animals in Jammu and Kashmir. Till 1994, the captive breeding of Hangul ( Cervus elaphus hangula ) was successful. But the programme could not be continued due to the onset of militancy in the Valley. Besides the lone snow leopard, the city forest national park is also home to one musk bear and a couple of endangered bird species. The state has incurred huge expenditure on rearing of the leopard. Her daily diet includes seven kilograms (kg) of meat. "The animal was the last hope for starting our captive breeding programme afresh.
To pave the way for an international golf course, which is purely for recreational purpose, the state government is ruining its own institutions," says Masood Hussain, recipient of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation ( unesco ) sponsored award for best environmental journalist.
Assistant warden at Jammu and Kashmir's department of wildlife Afshaan Dewan admitted that the animal was soon going to be transferred, but refuted the allegation that it was a bureaucratic or political decision. "The international golf course has nothing to do with the city forest national park. The decision to shift the animal was taken by chief wildlife warden in the better interest of the animal," clarified Dewan.
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