Pythons Slaughtered for Food in Tripura, Forest Department Under Fire

Agartala, February 11, 2020:

The photos and videos featuring pythons being slaughtered and decapitated at Chimlung, a bordering village of Tripura and Mizoram for consumption, has landed the state's forest department in a spot of bother after backlash from animal rights activists and NGOs.

A team of forest officials under the leadership of the SDFO Suman Das went to the spot where the slaughter had purportedly occurred to investigate the matter, but failed to make any breakthrough.

District Forest Officer Dr Naresh Babu has said that a team of forest officers reached the spot to investigate the matter, but no discoveries were made.

“Following the gravity of the issue, we acted accordingly and formed a team to probe into the matter. A team under the leadership of SDFO Suman Das reached the spot this morning. As per the latest development generated from the grounds, the locals of Chimlung have no idea about the slaughter", Naresh Babu told us, adding that the officials entered Mizoram's territory to investigate further.

“The photos and videos that are being circulated widely on social media have no specific mention of the place where the event occured. Our team entered Mizoram to investigate whether it has taken place in Mizoram part of Chimlung. The person who has photographed the incident has been identified, but he has not responded to our calls. Now, our first job is to get in touch with him physically to understand what has actually happened” Babu said.

It may be mentioned here that videos and photographs of the incident that went viral in social media raised a hue-and-cry with several prominent animal rights activists seeking justice. Speaking to this us, General Secretary of Pawsome, an NGO, Wrigbed Dutta said, “It is a punishable offence and those who are involved in this inhuman incident have to be punished.”

Dutta also alleged that there were a group of families based at Kanchanpur, somewhere near Bhangmun, who were engaged in hunting wild animals. “This is not the first case. This is for the first time something like that come to light. According to one of our resource people, animals are often slaughtered for food."

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