Baliguda: After the video of a rural youth hunting baby wild parrots went viral on YouTube and later media became abuzz with it, Odisha Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Thursday ordered for probe and insisted to take action as per Wildlife (Protection) Act.
The PCCF also asked Baliguda and Phulbani divisional forest officers (DFOs) of Kandhamal district to submit a detailed report soon.
The honourary wildlife warden (HWW) Subhendu Mallik had recently brought the matter to the knowledge of Odisha PCCF through e-mail. As proof thereof, warden Mallik sent the viral video of hunting along with another one where a number of baby wild parrots were seen eating boiled rice served on a steel plate outside an iron cage.
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According to a Forest department source, in the purported video, the youth was seen climbing a tree in wild and later catching the young birds that were not capable to fly away. The youth was seen bringing them down the tree by wrapping with the help of a napkin. He usually targets a tree hollow (naturally formed semi-enclosed cavity in the trunk or branch of a tree) and also prepares videos of his act.
Perhaps, the accused youth was uploading his videos on YouTube for financial benefits. Around 5.5 lakh people have viewed the video, so far. However, catching Alexandrine parakeet (Psittacula eupatria) which is also known as Alexandrine parrot or ‘Nahaka Sua’ in local parlance is a punishable offence, the department source added.
Meanwhile, the accused YouTuber and hunter from Kandhamal has deleted the viral video where he was seen climbing a tree in a forest and catching three baby wild parrots. He has also changed the name of his account from ‘LK Channel’ to ‘My Blog’, the source stated.
Reacting to this, the warden Mallik said, “The accused youth cannot escape legal action as I have sent screenshots of the two viral videos along with URL addresses to Odisha PCCF for necessary steps.”
Cyber experts will be able to identify the person who was handling the YouTube account from given URL addresses, Mallik asserted.
The youth will be nabbed by forest officials soon, the warden said.
PNN