Bandipora- Wular Conservation and Management Authority (WUCMA) has installed CCTV cameras at Saderkot and various points along the banks of Asia’s largest freshwater lake, Wular, with the objective of identifying miscreants engaged in poaching migratory birds during the winter months when Thousands of birds visit from Europe and other countries.
The lake becomes home for migratory birds during winter season but the increasing anti-poaching in recent years have become a threat to the migratory birds.
District Forest Officer and In-Charge of WUCMA Bandipora, Mudasir Mehmood, said that the department has set up CCTV cameras around key locations at Wular Lake where bird poaching has been prevalent, causing significant harm to migratory birds, some of which are classified as endangered.
He said that the primary objective behind installing these cameras is to ensure 24-hour surveillance of the lake, aiming to apprehend individuals engaged in illegal bird poaching activities around Wular; strict actions will be taken against those found involved.
Meanwhile, local residents, welcomed the step of installing CCTV at Wular banks, and hoped that it would stop the anti-poaching operations in Wular lake. A group of residents commended the government’s initiative to install CCTV around the lake, expressing that individuals engaged in bird poaching should be publicly identified in accordance with the law.
Earlier, Law Enforcing Agencies has launched a massive campaign against hunters and has seized more than a dozen punt guns from the villages around Wular Lake.
Deputy Director Forest Protection Force Bandipora Aizaz Ahmad Pajwari said that as many as 12 punt guns used by hunters to kill wetland birds were seized from Saderkoot, Kulhama and Garoora villages of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district in last two years.
He said based on a tip off regarding the use of punt guns in Wular Lake for killing certain bird species, anti-poaching teams raided several locations during which 12 punt guns were seized till date, however poachers fled from the spot.
Punt gun is a type of extremely large shotgun used in wetlands to shoot large numbers of waterfowl for commercial hunting. He said Forest protection forces have intensified their surveillance operations in and around Wular Lake to stop illegal hunting and provide protection to winged residents of the Wular Lake.
The official said that the use of punt guns by poachers has been reduced during the current year with extra efforts put forth by the sleuths of Anti-poaching Forest Protection Force.
Pajwari said that a case had been filed in accordance with the pertinent legal provisions and that an additional investigation was ongoing. The use of punt guns in and near the water body is prohibited by the authorities, but locals claim that hunters are nevertheless using locally built firearms to kill wetland birds without impunity.
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