Thirty-three held for illegally entering Gir forest, released on self-bail

27-5-08

Thirty-three held for illegally entering Gir forest, released on self-bail

Indian Express By Sibte Hussain Bukhari

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Thirtythree-held-for-illegally-entering-Gir-forest-released-on-selfbail/314893/

Junagadh, May 26 Forest officials arrested 33 people for illegally entering the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary on Sunday. However, they were released later after producing self-bails.

According to forest officials, the arrests were made under the provision of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. They said the offenders will be prosecuted and fine will be slapped on them.

Officials said that Deputy Conservator of Forest (Gir east) J S Solanki, during his scheduled visit in the protected area, noticed a group of men and women there. When he questioned them, he found that the group had made an illegal entry.

“Illegally entering a protected forest area is a serious offence. They will be prosecuted before the court of deputy conservator of forest,” Solanki said. He added that on Saturday, a motorcyclist was also arrested while roaming around in the protected area.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a carcass of a full-grown lioness was recovered from Babara vidi, a protected area outside the Gir forest near Malia town. A postmortem conducted on the spot did not show any injury on the body.

“The exact cause of death could not be established immediately. Viscera of the animal have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory, Junagadh for a detailed clinical examination,” officials said.