Sopore: Anti-poaching team of Wular Conservation and Management Authority and Forest Protection Force have claimed to have seized one Punt gun, one boat and other contraband articles from the possession of poacher at Kehnusa area of Bandipora during a raid carried out on Monday afternoon .
Irfan Rasool, Coordinator WUCMA said that, a tip off was received regarding use of punt guns at Kehnusa for killing of scheduled bird species. The Anti-poaching team was deputed to carry out the raid. During the operation, one 12 feet long Punt gun, one boat, live shells, decoys etc were seized from the spot. The culprit has been identified as Ghulam Mohammad Sofi resident of Kehnusa Ghat Bandipora and FIR is being registered against him, he added.
He said that a punt gun is a type of extremely large shotgun used in wetlands to shoot large numbers of waterfowl for commercial hunting. WUCMA and Forest Protection Force have intensified their surveillance operations in and around Wular lake to stop illegal hunting and provide protection to winged residents of Wular Lake.
Local residents of around the wulor allegedly said , that the nexus between the protection forces of the wulor and smugglers is the main cause of destroying water birds in wulor in sopore north Kashmir , they appealed to LG government for necessary actions against the nexus.
