Hog deer poached in Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve area, case registered

Forest officials at Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in Bihar recovered a mutilated carcass of a hog deer from a field at a village in state’s West Champaran district on Friday late evening.

According to the officials, the carcass was recovered from a field of Nayagaon Rampur village which falls under Laukariya police station area of Bagaha subdivision in West Champaran district.

“We have identified three accused so far and the search for them is on,” said Awdesh Kumar Singh, range officer (in-charge) of Madanpur forest range of VTR.

The matter came to the fore after the forest officials acted on a tip-off and raided the village at around 9 pm on Friday. The officials seized the carcass lying in a pool of blood with its head and three legs chopped off. “Prima facie, it appears that the animal was first caught and killed to extract the flesh. The head of the animal could not be traced,” said the range officer, adding that the carcass has been sent for postmortem.

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HK Rai, wildlife conservator and field director, VTR on Saturday confirmed the registration of a case against unidentified persons under the Wildlife Protection Act. He said hog deer, which has a population of about 600 in VTR, often live on the fringe of forests and spend sizeable time in the nearby fields along the Gandak river.

“We have already formed a flying squad in some blocks to keep tab of the movement of animals from the forest areas. We are looking forward to forming more squad because of the rising number of animals in VTR,” said Rai.

Spread over an area of 900 square kilometres, the VTR is broadly divided into two divisions which is home to a large number of wild animals namely tigers, leopards, bears and rhinoceros among reptiles and other animals. Forest officials believe tigers, leopards and bears are vulnerable to poaching, forcing them to tighten the security around.

“We believe tigers, leopards, deer and bears are most vulnerable to poaching. However, taking nothing to the chance, we have pressed 40 home guard jawans, around 500 local personnel, five rangers to keep a tab on the activities in the forest area, besides this, 17 wireless stations have also been set up to raise alarm, if required,” said a forest official.

Past incidents

On August 20 last year, a man with about five kilograms of deer flesh was held from Sirisiya Jarlahiya village in the Madanpur forest area of Valmiki Tiger Reserve.

On January 22 last year, the forest officials of Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) rescued a wild bear from a trap and later released the animal in deep forests.

In 2018, a bear was found killed in the forests of Raghiya in VTR.

In 2014-15, two bears were poached in the forest of Haranatand forest areas of VTR.