BHOPAL: People practicing black magic are on prowl in the forest areas of Madhya Pradesh. In a second instance this month, a leopard was found dead with severed paws in Katangi, Balaghat district. Earlier this month, a decomposed carcass of an adult tiger was found with paws chopped near Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary The authorities at the forest department said that mutilated body of leopard was found in Katangi and fore limb was found missing.
No evidence of poisoning and injuries were found which indicates that the stripped cat was killed for occult practice. Forest department has arrested one Kashiram Meshram in this connection. The authorities said that a tiger was killed in similar fashion in Ratapani early this month. There are 4000 people of Bega community which traditionally practices black magic in Balaghat district.
CCF and warden(tigers) Shahbaz Ahmed said that people engaged in black magic and occult are active in the state. “These people require paws of big cats for black magic rituals. In Bhopal also persons involved in black magic had chopped off paws (fore limbs) of the tiger. Now, forelimb of a leopard has been severed in Katangi.” Primarily nomadic tribes like Pardis, Bhelias and Bawarias were involved in crime, now the black magic practitioners are engaged in poaching, said the officer.
The department has chalked out a plan to check such activities, he added. An eight-year-old tiger was found dead with severed paws near Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary, 40km from Bhopal on December 5. It was a case of poaching for black magic as the tiger’s front paws were chopped off and the hair around its tail and eyelashes was missing. Later, a villager named Harchand Singh of Bineka and his four aides were arrested. Ratapani is likely to be notified as a tiger reserve after getting in-principle approval from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in 2008.
