Nagaland: 4 hunters who celebrated ‘lockdown festival’ surrender

Kohima: Despite the lack of technical capabilities, the wildlife wing of the Nagaland department of environment, forest and climate change said that it has traced four violators of the Wildlife Prohibition Act.

Following a viral video in which a group of men were seen with hunted wildlife animals and describing the act as a “lockdown festival”, the forest department traced the four suspects who surrendered to the wildlife wing.

A press note from the chief wildlife warden on Tuesday said that in regard to the viral video, four suspects — Imchainba of Longkhum village, Osungkum N Jamir of Unger village; Yanger Jamir of Unger village and Opangtemsu of Asangma village have surrendered to the wildlife wing.

This follows investigation by the department into the incident and zeroing in on the suspects who were seen in the video celebrating ‘lockdown festival’, the press note said, adding that despite the lack of technical capability, the department using its own resources traced and identified the culprits.

The video depicts the ruthless killing of wild animals including barking deer and large Indian civet cat, it said. It also said that the case is being investigated further as per relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and other relevant laws as applicable.

Despite the government’s ban on hunting, videos and pictures of individuals engaged in such acts have surfaced on various social media platforms as the nation remains in lockdown due to the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic.