An animal rights activist has approached the Supreme Court against unauthorised use of weapons and drugs for hunting down wild animals( alleged man-eaters) for illegal and lucrative trade of their body parts.
Through her NGO, 'Red Lynx Confederation', petitioner Sangeeta Dogra sought a direction from the court to centralise data for all weapon licence holders and keep a tab on their activities with the use of intelligent software.
The petitioner cited several instances showing how sports category shooters, namely Shafath Ali Khan ran a private NGO for tranquilising animals, which, it claimed, was unconstitutional. Such killings were also a violation of the right to equality, and life and duty to protect and improve the natural environment as well as wildlife and have compassion for living creatures.
Raising questions of law, she asked whether those having sports category weapon with or without consent from the concerned Ministry should be permitted for hunting wild animals in the name of conservation and to control human-animal conflict.
Her plea also asked if the term man-eater is constitutionally appropriate for carnivorous wild animals and if pug mark identification was sufficient to issue shoot orders. She also submitted the licenced trophies, which were a result of hunting and poaching of wild animals, should be prohibited.