Concerned over the death of a female leopard whose carcass was found last week stuck in a snare inside Aarey Colony, an NGO working on issues related to urban wildlife has decided to volunteer along with the dairy department to carry out removal of such traps as well as educate the locals residing in the tribal hamlets of Aarey against poaching.
Pawan Sharma — founder and president of Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW) — shared that they have already spoken with Aarey chief executive officer (CEO) about volunteering and he has given them a go ahead.
"We are extremely worried about the situation at Aarey as earlier there were reports about researchers finding snares and trap and then last week a leopard was found stuck in one such snares. It is evident that poaching is a concern and we have decided to start an awareness drive in various tribal hamlets of Aarey and carry out a survey along with dairy department's officials inside Aarey to remove any such traps set up," informed Sharma, adding that we have also clarified in the letter sent to the CEO that we only want to work on the conservation and awareness aspect and will not be carrying out any activity like following any wildlife or visiting Aarey post sunset unless called by the dairy department.
He informed that they had spoken to Aarey CEO Gajanan Raut who has shown keenness on initiating this project and the NGO has even submitted letters to the department seeking permissions.
"Awareness could go a long way as being locals, the residents from tribal pada's can be sensitized and they too could help in locating such traps or poachers. Our team will also keep visiting Aarey and make rounds and immediately bring any suspicious activity to the notice of forest as well as dairy department," informed Chinmay Joshi from RAWW.
Sharma added that they will be meeting Raut on Monday to discuss the project in detail and would also want to involve interested individuals and group of volunteers.
"This could help initiate an example of government organisation as well as public coming together for the cause and protection of Aarey and wildlife," he added, saying that the concern was not only poaching of leopards but even smaller wildlife existing in the wilderness of Aarey.
Speaking to dna, Raut said that the death of the female leopard stuck in snare was really unfortunate and they would never want anything like it to happen in the future.
"We are already working with several groups and organisations and even have banned vehicular movement in the internal road for protection of wildlife and are keen to start this new exercise as well as awareness to protect the wildlife existing in Aarey. We will have a meeting with this group and decide how we can start this survey and awareness against poaching."
