Photo: Sanjay Kumar. Five poachers from a village in the Howrah district of West Bengal were arrested on August 5, 2015 for allegedly having killed five fishing cats.
The accused were identified as local tribals and were arrested near Munsirhat in Uluberia where the killings took place. The fishing cat, which is the state animal of West Bengal, falls under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act and is thus under the same protection status as a tiger.
Graphic photographs of the poachers with the dead fishing cats were circulated by the media, which incidentally aided the identification and arrest of the individuals. With the photographs having been shared on social media, more than 4000 supporters from 48 countries petitioned to the chief wildlife warden demanding immediate action against the poachers.
The five accused surrendered before the Additional Divisional Forest Officer (ADFO) and his team, after the main accused's family was approached and warned. Tiasa Adhya, an ecologist who has been undergoing research work on fishing cats in the marshland of Howrah and Hooghly, mentioned that she saw the arrest as “the first step towards achieving our bigger goal of ensuring protection to the state animal."
According to Honorary Wildlife Warden Suchandra Kundu, social media played an important role in the arrest of the five poachers. He went on to mention that the forest department and local residents “should work jointly to not only protect the species, but also secure its habitat, mainly the marshlands of Howrah".
According to a 2010-11 report, 27 fishing cats were killed in a span of just 18 months in Howrah.
Source: Times of India
