This story is from June 5, 2021

Nagpur: Row over not calling wardens for post-mortem of 2 leopards

The death of two leopards on Thursday (June 3) in the Khapa forest range has kicked up a row with allegations that National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) protocol was not followed while conducting a post-mortem and subsequently cremation of the animals.
Nagpur: Row over not calling wardens for post-mortem of 2 leopards
On Thursday, carcasses of a female leopard and her four-month-old cub were found in Mohgaon in dry Pendhri nullah
NAGPUR: The death of two leopards on Thursday (June 3) in the Khapa forest range has kicked up a row with allegations that National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) protocol was not followed while conducting a post-mortem and subsequently cremation of the animals.
On Thursday, carcasses of a female leopard and her four-month-old cub were found in Mohgaon in dry Pendhri nullah.
A post-mortem conducted by livestock development officer (LDO) Dr Rohini Bawaskar prima facie revealed that the animals died due to dehydration.
“However, though the post-mortem was conducted by Dr Bawaskar alone, the press release issued by Khapa range forest officer (RFO) Pravin Naik falsely stated that Dr Syed Bilal of Transit Treatment Centre (TTC), Seminary Hills, was also present,” said newly-appointed district honorary wildlife warden Avinash Londhe.
Londhe alleged the two leopards died of thirst. “It is the complete failure of the RFO concerned that no artificial drinking water sources have been created for wildlife during peak summer,” he said.
He said, “Leopard being Schedule-I animal under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, no senior officers reached the spot as per protocol. Of the four honorary wardens for Nagpur district, not one was invited during post-mortem as representatives of PCCF (wildlife) and NTCA. Ashish Kohale from a local NGO was called.”
RFO Naik admits, “Dr Bilal’s name in the press release was mentioned by mistake. Kohale was called as NTCA representative with prior permission from AIG Hemant Kamdi. It’s true that there was no PCCF representative.”

On not calling honorary wardens for post-mortem, Naik said, “Ajinkya Bhatkar was unavailable as he was out of Nagpur. Another warden Roheet Karu is based in Umred and it was not possible for him to come. I have not heard about one more warden Uddhamsingh Yadav and, moreover, I was also not aware that Londhe being appointed warden two days ago.”
“There is no intentional goof up. Senior officials could not reach the spot as they were busy guiding monitoring teams to check the leopard problem in Nagpur. The post-mortem was conducted in a transparent manner and there is no poaching as all the body parts were intact,” said RFO Naik.
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