Bareilly: After arrest of ace golfer and amateur shooter Jyoti Randhawa in an alleged poaching case, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) has constituted a working group comprising officials from police and forest departments across the country to study if there is any network of sportspersons or celebrities involved in wildlife crimes.Ramesh Pandey, field director of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve and one of the members of this group, told TOI, “Taking cognizance of the initial report, WCCB has formed a working group headed by its additional director Tilotama Varma to study all wildlife cases involving sportspersons. The group will look into details of network involved in game hunting and illegal wildlife trade. The bureau is also planning to approach National Rifle Association and other related associations to alert them on the issue.”A meeting in this connection was recently held in New Delhi where Pandey was also present. The working groups comprises police and forest officials and other experts of wildlife crimes from different parts of the country. “It appears to be an emerging pattern where reputed shooters are involved in wildlife crimes. There is possibility of a larger network whose activities have to be watched closely. There is a need to delineate the network and also take preventive measures. We are approaching enforcement agencies to work on the larger module,” Pandey had earlier said.The field director said, “A few cases that have been reported are of Olympian Mairaj Ahmed Khan allegedly hunting a sambar in Bulandshahr’s Khurja in 2011, his brother and national-level shooter Nazam Ahmad Khan allegedly killing a nilgai in Bulandshahr in 2015 and the arrest of another national-level shooter, Prashant Bishnoi, in Meerut in 2015 for running a poaching racket.”Randhawa is also a shooting athlete of big bore and skeet events who turned amateur four years ago. However, he ended up at the bottom of score tallies in most of these events. The golfer was caught in Motipur range of Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuary of Dudhwa tiger reserve on December 26 with a telescope-mounted .22 rifle fitted with a silencer, 80 cartridges, a range finder, carcass of a junglefowl, hide of a sambhar and other wildlife articles in his SUV.

Stay updated with all the Bareilly Lates News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.