Man to be sued for killing wildcat, posting photo on Facebook

The forest department in Moulvibazar district has decided to sue a person who posted the photo of a dead body of a wildcat on social media after killing the endangered species, which is against the law.  

Sources said one Mostofa Mia of Borcheg village in Kamalganj upazila of the district, killed a wildcat on Thursday night and later posted a photo of the dead animal on Facebook.

Forest department officials say the killing of any kind of wild animals, especially endangered species, is clearly a breach of the country's existing laws that ensure the conservation of wildlife.

This is why the department has decided to sue the person who did this criminal offence, they said. 

Contacted, Mostafa Mia,however, said, "The wildcat has been hunting chickens from my cousin Pinku Mia's farm which is why he killed the animal. Later, I uploaded the photo of the dead body of the animal on my Facebook page, and claimed for fun, that I killed the wildcat."

Muntasir Akash, a lecturer at Dhaka University's Zoology Department, said the scientific name for the wildcat is Felis chaus, a nocturnal wild species which the International Union for Conservation of Nature has declared an endangered species in Bangladesh.

Sylhet Divisional Forest Officer Md Rezaul Karim Chowdhury said, "The killing of wild animals is a punishable offence. We will file a case against the killer of the wildcat in Moulvibazar."