MITHI, Oct 26: Residents of Nagarparkar taluka have urged the wildlife authorities to take notice of poaching, trapping and hunting of rare and endangered species by influential people.

They accused local officials of the wildlife department to be hand in glove with the poachers and feared that it was most likely that wildlife would be wiped out in near future if action was not taken against the poachers and their facilitators.

The residents of Bar-tala and Dod-wah villages told Dawn that an influential local wadera and his henchmen were professional poachers and had been hunting antelope and deer in the areas of Karoonjher hills for a couple of years despite a ban on hunting in Thar.

They alleged that officials of the wildlife department were helping the poachers in locating endangered animals and birds.The villagers said the wadera and others of his gang had hunted a number of antelope, deer, peacock and other rare species.

They said some local people trapped a pair of antelope fawn and sold them to the influential wadera in Baar-Tala village a few weeks back. The influential man threatened the villagers of dire consequences if they made any complaint in this regard.

The villagers said that when they complained to the wildlife conservator  about the capture of antelope fawn he just ignored it and said that an inquiry would be conducted in this regard by the game officials.

When asked whether any case has been registered against the influential wadera, who unlawfully purchased a pair of young antelope, assistant conservator Lajpat Sharma told this correspondent that a team of game watchers was twice sent to the area after receiving such a complaint. However, there was contradiction in the report that the matter had been investigated or not.

Shaukat Hingorjo, honorary game warden of Tharparkar district, said that according to reports of game watchers local wadera S. Khan had been found involved in purchasing a pair of young antelope from Hari Ram Kolhi and two others of the village. However, the case is yet to be registered in this regard.

It may be mentioned that Rangers had caught three people with four fawns in their car a few days ago.

They were handed over to the game officials, who only imposed a fine of Rs40,000 on them.

A large number of deer, antelope, peacock, partridge and sand grouse are poached in the Nagarparkar game sanctuary by influential hunters every year. However, nothing significant has been done by the game department to save endangered species.