Cuttack: The Wildlife Society of Odisha (WSO) is concerned over lack of prosecution and subsequent conviction in crimes related to animals in the state.

The situation, according to a WSO survey, required coordination between the judiciary and the forest administration.

The society urged the principal chief conservator of forests to convene state-level coordination meetings and review status of forest cases in the presence of state public prosecutor. Registration of wildlife cases is extremely low in the state and in most cases the accused go unpunished because of incompetent investigations. Most wildlife offences are recorded as undetected cases as the forest department is clueless about the identity of the offenders. Usually, such cases are converted into registered offences once the identity of the accused is established after probe.

"Even in cases where accused are arrested after wildlife products are seized from them or recovered from their houses, many escape punishment because of faulty charge sheets," WSO secretary Biswajit Mohanty said.

According to the WSO survey, three leopard skins were seized near Jyoti ITI in Bangriposi, Similipal, and seven poachers-cum-traders were caught with skins in December 2014.

In February last year, a Baripada court acquitted them as the forest department failed to provide the required evidences and there were procedural errors in the documents. In May 2015, a man was caught with a leopard skin at Rangamatia in Similipal. In January 2016, a Baripada court acquitted him due to discrepancies in evidence of official witnesses.