BENGALURU: After arresting Santhosh Kumar, a contestant of Bigg Boss-Kannada, from the sets for allegedly wearing a tiger claw pendant, social media was flooded with photos of Kannada film actor Darshan purportedly wearing a similar pendant and many demanded action against him. Karnataka forest department officials said they are aware of the allegations and jurisdictional officers are already put on the job to investigate it.
Netizens also demanded action against the seer of Gowrigadde Ashram in Chikkamagaluru, Vinay Guruji, for allegedly possessing a tiger pelt. A top forest official told TNIE, “Though we have not received any complaint against the two, we have information that they are in possession of wildlife body parts. The jurisdictional forest officials will start investigating based on the information they have.”
He said, “If they are found in possession without prior permission from Chief Wildlife Warden, action will be initiated against them as per law.”
He clarified that officials cannot per se make out whether the actor was wearing a ‘tiger claw’ pendant as such items, made out of plastic, are available in the market. “Officials will have to verify the wildlife possession through a forensic test, like how we did in the case of Santhosh Kumar, and then proceed,” he added.
On Santhosh Kumar’s case, he said that once the investigation is over, the report will be submitted to the court for further action.
Asked whether people who possess wildlife articles can surrender them to forest officials and prevent legal action, the forest department official said, “As of now, the forest law does not provide any direction on disposing of wildlife articles. After Santhosh Kumar’s arrest, there may be people who are in possession coming forward to surrender them. There may be people who might have inherited wildlife articles and not declared them. They are unaware that possession of items like elephant ivory, elephant tail hair, teeth, hides of wild animals, etc. is illegal according to the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and leads to legal trouble.”
He said, “We will explore if we can do something within the legal framework so that no action is taken against them after they surrender their possessions.”