Even as a major hunt has been launched in the Purkhali jungles of Ropar to nab two women and a male trapper of the Bagria tribals responsible for the trapping and sale of grey partridges, reports indicate that hundreds of birds are sent for VIP consumption to Chandigarh every season, including homes of senior police officers.A team of the Punjab Forests and Wildlife Preservation Department under Chhatbir Zoo Wildlife warden Neeraj Gupta and Ropar DFO S.S. Bhatti on Tuesday rescued 21 partridges from two Bagria trappers who had offered them for sale to a decoy customer for Rs 20 per bird near Gochar village.The two arrested, Ram Singh and Gopi, residents of Phillaur, were yesterday produced before the Ropar Chief Judicial Magistrate and were booked under the Wildlife (Preservation) Act, 1972. The CJM has remanded the two to judicial custody till October 13.‘‘Though CM Capt Amarinder Singh, who is also the Wildlife Minister, has expressed a keen desire to promote wildlife, the ground level realities are not being addressed,’’ said a former member of the State Wildlife Advisory Board.Reports with the Department indicate that not only partridges but wildboar and sambhar were also being trapped in the Kandi jungles and the shikar meat sold in the market at a hefty price.
