Within the period earlier than militancy and terrorism turned the paradise of Kashmir into colonies of younger males’s graves and departing coffins of troopers, the Indian “shikar” elite would fly to the fabled vale to legally shoot duck, chukor and black bear. The shikar expeditions had been facilitated and organized by rich houseboat house owners of the Dal/Nigeen lakes and their shoppers included the diplomatic corps (specifically, the US Embassy), former princes, politicians and varied VVIPs.
Farooq A Boktoo (on left) with different gunmen caught on CCTV at Wullar. (WULLAR CONSERVATION & MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY)
The pure wetlands of Hokersar, Haigam and Wullar would resound with gunfire because the shikaris swung ultra-light and super-expensive English shotguns, such because the Purdeys, Churchills and Holland & Holland, at mallards, glistening an iridescent green-blue in neck and tail feathers curling coyly just like the Maharaja’s moustaches! The mallard feathers had been later customary as “my lady’s earrings”. As smoke wisped away from vibrant shotgun shells into the frosty Kashmir air, the skies over the famed wetlands can be stuffed with feathers like drifting parachutes. The dislodged feathers trailed afar the falling geese, which fell within the waters rapidly with a uninteresting thud.
Out of sync with the wildlife legal guidelines governing the remainder of the nation, Jammu and Kashmir exercised the facility to grant particular searching licences, with a bag restrict of 20 for every gun, beneath its personal separate legal guidelines. As late as December 1997, the state had issued particular licences for the controversial Pataudi duck shoot on the Hokersar wetland. An estimated 150 migratory birds had been downed at Hokersar over two days by the late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and his visitors, who included members of erstwhile princely households and one hunter from the Delhi diplomatic corps.
Having bought acclimatised to the custom of winter capturing of migratory waterfowl and having fun with clout within the administration because of the patronage and linkages with pan-Indian VVIP shikaris, a bit of the houseboat house owners and shikar tourism operators by no means actually accepted the ban on leisure searching after the state’s separate wildlife legal guidelines enacted beneath the J&Okay Wildlife (Safety) Act, 1978, had been lastly amended in 2002 on the traces of the Nationwide Wildlife (Safety) Act, 1972.
(From left) a 9.3-foot punt gun seized in April 2023 from Bandipora by the Forest Safety Pressure; duck decoys seized in Srinagar on Tuesday; and the shotgun recovered from Farooq A Boktoo by wildlife division officers. (DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE PROTECTION, KASHMIR)
Final Sunday, 4 of those gunmen from Srinagar had been caught on CCTV surveillance cameras on the Wullar lake, a Ramsar website. The images and movies got extensive publicity by the Wullar Conservation and Administration Authority. Coupled with public suggestions and inputs from sources inside the poaching cliques, the Division of Wildlife Safety launched a sequence of early morning raids in Srinagar on Tuesday, a time when, satirically sufficient, duck and geese hunters wait within the bulrushes by the sprawling wetlands and rivers to launch barrages of lead pellets at skeins coming back from nocturnal feeding in agrarian fields and smaller water our bodies.
“The Srinagar police was cooperative and cordial when we approached them for assistance in raiding and nabbing the poachers. We were able to arrest one of the four (Farooq A Boktoo) from his home in Habak and recovered a shotgun. We also recovered 12 duck decoys, which are used to lure the wild birds to the point where the poachers are hiding. The other suspects, Hamid Fayaz Wangnoo, Farooq A Wangnoo, Ashaq A Dar and Zahoor A Dar, went absconding but presented themselves for investigations before me on Friday,” Altaf Hussain Dentoo, ACF/wildlife warden wetlands, Kashmir, informed this author.
“The crackdown on the poachers is unprecedented. It is a historic step to safeguard Kashmir’s migratory guests,” regional willdife warden, Kashmir, Tawheed A Deva, informed this author.
Why so? “These poachers thought themselves to be ‘untouchables’, they believed they were immune to law enforcement. They are associated with the houseboat and tourism sector. The department is pursuing a policy of deterrence to ensure that poachers dare not indulge in such acts in the future. It is better that poaching is prevented rather than such acts happening and we then endeavour to cure the problem by nabbing the poachers and prosecuting them. We have also communicated to the district administrations/police to get gun owners to deposit their licensed firearms before the commencement of the migratory bird season,” defined Dentoo.