Berhampur: A picture of a man posing with ‘Monitor Lizard’, locally known as ‘Godhi’ across his shoulder is going viral on social media platforms since Thursday. This puts forth yet another example of the Wildlife Protection Act-1972 being breached with impunity.
The animal lovers and green-activists, who are sharing the picture on their social media pages, are demanding immediate arrest of the person in picture.
According to the nature lovers, the man is from Anantei village under Berhampur forest division. The animal in picture, a Monitor Lizard (Godhi) is coming under Wildlife Protection Act’s part-II of schedule-I.
Anyone falling foul of this Act attracts a jail term of minimum 3 years and maximum 7 years. Besides, a maximum fine of Rs 25, 000 could also be collected from the breacher.
However, no action has been taken so far against the man playing with the animal, Cynophilists and concerned citizens alleged and reported on their social media pages.
Notably some locals had earlier killed a king cobra, a reptile classified under schedule-II at Tamana Ghat. One year has already passed since the incident however no action has surfaced in this case as well.
Given that action is not being taken against those who are flouting the Act, such cases of playing with and killing the scheduled type animals have become normal occurrence, leading to more violation of the Act.
It may be pertinent to mention here that four youths were earlier arrested for teasing an elephant in Keonjhar district a few days back.
PNN