New Delhi: Ashok Kumar, Senior Advisor and Trustee, Wildlife Trust of India has been at the forefront of the fight against poachers and illegal trade of wildlife and wildlife derivatives in India for over two decades. Here he recounts an interesting case of a python that was used by a stage magician who claimed that it was an “ajgar”, and not a python due to its small size! More about the case from Ashok Kumar…

“A couple of months back, I had placed a story on  Nathist that a trial court in Punjab had fined a stage magician Rs.25,000/= for using a python on stage declaring that since the python was small, it should be called an ‘Ajgar’ and not a python and therefore a fine was sufficient penalty in place of a minimum jail sentence which is prescribed by section 51 of Wildlife Protection Act.

The word ‘Ajgar’ is ofcourse nothing but a Hindi translation of Python, and the law makes no distinction for size and age.

There was therefore a need to get the rigour of wildlife law to Punjab.Wildlife Trust of India, therefore filed a case in Punjab and Haryana High Court,not as a PIL but under section 482 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) seeking to appeal against the decision of the lower court though we were not a party to the case. This section has not been relied upon much in wildlife cases to the best of our knowledge.

The petition titled Wildlife Trust of India and Anr Vs Bhagwan Singh and Anr came before the High Court  and was heard on 22nd July 2004. The High Court sought clarification on the quantum of sentence and upon being informed that a sentence less than the minimum prescribed had been awarded, admitted the case and issued notices to the respondents. The case is now listed for hearing on 10th Sept. 2004.”