Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
Time seems to be up for notorious poacher Sansar Chand. After having spent a lifetime hunting down tigers and virtually eliminating big cats from some of the largest wildlife reserves in the country, the Supreme Court on Monday reserved judgement on one of his cases promising no reprieve for such “destructors of wildlife”.
Spewing utmost contempt for Chand, who had approached the Apex Court claiming innocence in a case registered against him in Rajasthan, the Apex bench of Justices Markandey Katju and TS Thakur said, “You (Sansar) have destroyed the entire wildlife in the country by your poaching activities. Now very few tigers and leopards are left.”
Advocate Manish Singhvi appearing for Rajasthan informed the Court that at present eight cases were registered against Chand and many more were pending investigations. Supporting him, the NGO Wildlife Trust of India produced extensive documents to suggest that in all there were 57 cases registered against the accused across the country.
With the trade being in smuggling trophies of tiger and leopard bones and skins, the tiger population had come down to a staggering odd 1,400, WTI informed. It further informed the Court that the nefarious trade had its tentacles spread to Nepal and China where the tiger skin and bones are sold at huge profits.
Stating that Chand alone was responsible for cleaning up Sariska tiger reserve up to its last tiger, Singhvi said, “We have lost our entire tigers in state and he is the key man responsible for it. We can never rehabilitate them since there is a genetic pool of Sariska tigers which has forever been lost.”
Though Sansar Chand’s advocate tried his best to win a legal point for his client, he was snubbed by the Bench, which said, “People like you do not care for anything but profit. Today you are selling tiger and leopard skins. Who knows tomorrow you will sell human skin….It’s sad that the country’s wildlife is being lost and the whole society has become commercialised.”
Hearing one last argument from Chand’s counsel that the only evidence against his client was an extrajudicial confession while no recovery was made from him, the Bench concluded, “We have reserved judgement. We will now pass our orders in the case.”
Source: http://www.dailypioneer.com/287672/No-relief-for-%E2%80%98wildlife-destructor%E2%80%99-Sansar-Chand-SC.html
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