NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20, 2005
SUROJIT MAHALANOBIS
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
If you are an NRI and possess old animal trophies
decorating your plush homes in India, make sure you
have secured their certificates from the state wildlife
warden. Or you are in trouble, as was on Saturday
the wife of a former Punjab DSP.
The Canada-based NRI Harpreet Kaur (name changed)
was taken for a surprise by the customs at the Indira
Gandhi International airport when her proud possession
of a sambar head with its exquisite antlers,
which she was carrying to Canada, was seized in a
gruesome persecution, as she checked in the airport
reportedly to take a flight to Vancouver
The customs officials immediately filed a case against
her under Section 53 of the Wildlife Protection Act
1972 and got the trophy examined by the northern Indian
office of Convention of International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES). The CITES officials confirmed that
the article was "a sambar head-mount with antlers"
and said it was about 25 years old and that the WPA
was in place at that time.
On Monday, a customs deputy commissioner fined
Harpreet Kaur Rs 10,000 as penalty but also issued
the required certificate while letting her go
The Central government's recent notification asking
citizens to secure certificates from concerned state
chief wildlife warden offices is still in vogue in
Punjab, though the same for the NCT of Delhi, where
it was clamped in October 2003, has expired. Customs
officials confided, on condition of anonymity, that
Kaur had committed mistakes by not only by flouting
the WPA section, but also by not securing the Punjab
chief wildlife warden's certificate on possession
of the trophy.
According to wildlife preservation assistant director
KN Singh, who also looks after the CITES issues,
"Probably the lady was not even knowing that
she had committed blunders on both counts. People
having old trophies need to be careful about their
possessions, or they might fall into troubled waters
any day. In this case the lady might not even be knowing
the consequences of the mistakes."
Sambar deers are not an endangered species. These
are profusely spread all over Asian countries, including
India. It is also one of the larger members of the
deer family. Some males weigh upto 300 kgs and grow
upto 150 cms at shoulders. A large sambar can feed
a full-grown tiger for over four days. Sambars are
covered by the scedule IV of the WPA 1972, as it's
the essential fodder in the foodchain of big cats,
and environmentally a very important determinant for
ecological balance.
Vegetarian sambars are widely spread in all Indian
forests and tiger reserves ^ such as Kanha, Corbett,
Ranthambore, Bandhavgarh, Gir, Dudhwa, Manas, Kaziranga
and Sariska.
