Karnataka govt mulling over one-time clemency to Wildlife Act violators
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka government is mulling providing clemency for the one last time to those who are in possession of wildlife products such as pelts, tooth, claws and various other artefacts, Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre said on Thursday.
The Minister's remarks come amid the forest department's raid at residences of a few prominent personalities and others, against whom complaints have been received that they are allegedly in possession of tiger claw or other wildlife articles.
A participant of reality show "Bigg Boss Kannada" was arrested on Sunday for sporting the tiger claw pendant.
Addressing reporters, Khandre said people are not aware of the stringent provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act-1972. He added that ever since the issue of became a talking point this week, his department is getting lots of complaints.
"I met the Chief Minister and briefed him about the case. We will take everyone's opinion and discuss with the forest officials. Government's opinion is that this should be discussed so as to provide one time clemency for the last time with regard to illegal possession of wildlife products," the Minister said.
Khandre explained that the objective behind offering one-time relief is that the Wildlife Protection Act is a stringent law and government has to take people into confidence if it has to be implemented in toto. "The objective behind strict compliance of the law is not to create a chaotic situation and terrorise people", he added.
"We will discuss with the legal experts and seek a report on this (one time clemency). Already a high level probe team has been set up. Our government and our department are committed to provide information to the people in order to give a permanent remedy to this matter."
He also appealed to the people to shun superstitious beliefs, which make them sport wildlife products such as elephant tusk, tiger claws, tooth, tiger or deer pelts without knowing that this is a punishable offence.
Khandre said the usage of such wildlife products encourage people to go for hunting and poaching endangered animals.
According to the Minister, the government had provided an opportunity to people to deposit all such wildlife products when it introduced the Wildlife Protection Act in 1972. People were also given a chance to deposit such things in 2003, he added.
Regarding the existing seized wildlife material, he said they will be destroyed since there is no scope in the law to grant ownership.
To a question whether the clemency has been thought out to bail out high profile people without trying them, Khandre said there is no question of granting relief to any individual for, everyone is equal in the eyes of law.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
