'Jama ke lagao': When Salman Khan pumped bullets into blackbucks
The lifespan of a blackbuck is 10 to 15 years. The timeline of the blackbuck poaching case that Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has been embroiled in is 19 years.
On April 5, a Jodhpur court sentenced the actor to five years in prison for hunting two blackbucks nearly two decades after he first shot two of the endangered deer dead on October 1, 1998 at Rajasthan's Kankani village. His co-stars Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre and Neelam Kothari were acquitted.
This conviction of one of India's biggest stars — in one of the four cases related to blackbuck/chinkara poaching he is involved in — is largely to the credit of the Bishnoi community for whom the buck never stopped. Legends of the Bishnois' commitment to wildlife, in particular the blackbuck, are well-known, but their latest victory will go down in history as one of their biggest.
To them, Salman Khan had mercilessly killed an emblem most sacred to their identity — a crime they would not let him get away with at any cost. In that fateful year, the actor not only pumped bullets into rare species of deer, eyewitness accounts said he also used a knife to cut a beautiful chinkara's slender throat and later cleaned his bloodstained hands.
An India Today magazine story from October 1998 details the lengths to which the actor and his colleagues went to entertain themselves with hunting, not thinking twice about breaking the law. Khan was encouraged by his friends to get his aim right, accomplices who didn't pull the trigger but applauded him for hunting precious living beings.
The blackbuck/chinkara poaching cases are a fitting case study on how environment and wildlife — the pillars of our existence — are taken for granted by India's mighty with utter disregard for law. It exemplifies why killing a part of our natural heritage is treated as collateral damage.
If anything, it should make us ask why Salman Khan and his co-actors Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre, Satish Shah and Neelam Kothari — all powerful public figures and impressionable citizens — saw no crime in practising a banned act or celebrating it.
1. 'Jama ke lagao', go for the kill
The hunt began on the evening of September 26. Harish Kumar Dulani, the driver of the gypsy used for the hunting trip, had then said in his statement that Khan [Salman] fired twice and missed. Satish Shah egged him on, "Jama ke lagao (Do it properly)."
With the third shot, the chinkara was killed and Khan got down and cut the chinkara's throat. Then, after killing another one, the actors drove back to the hotel.
2. Blackbuck down
The day after Salman Khan hunted the chinkara, on September 27, Dulani "washed the gypsy of dust and blood". This time driving with Saif and another person, Salman "seemed to be satisfied just running the chinkara ragged, chasing them till they could run no longer". When they returned for the hunt that night, they shot a chinkara dead.
Three days later, on October 1, all the film stars — Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam Kothari — who were shooting for Hum Saath Saath Hain went out and the two blackbucks were shot dead by Salman.
3. Caught in the act by Bishnois
The hunting party's biggest undoing came in the form of the Bishnois after Choga Ram, one of the complainants in the cases, chased their gypsy. Ram told India Today journalist Rohit Parihar that the actors had "strayed too close to our homes".
They could be easily identified, but the actors were not perturbed by the confrontation. Little did they know what they had hunted was revered.
3. Post-mortem lies, murky politics
"There were the missing guns that turned up in Mumbai and a science-defying postmortem report that attributed the death of the blackbucks to 'leaping'". The investigation was botched up, and political mudslinging made it murkier.
At the time, it was speculated that the actors had "manipulated the post-mortem report, turning it into a joke: deer was spelt as 'dear' and the cause of death was stated to be 'overeating'".
The Congress, one of whose leaders was accused of aiding Salman Khan, was clamouring for "the law must be equal for all" while the BJP, then in power in the state, claimed that law would take its course.
4. Confident of release
On October 12, Salman was arrested and charged with killing three chinkaras. Salman supposedly "just sat with his face in his hands", but he was confident of being let off. This day came as a slap in the face for him, for the court denied him bail.
After a brief prison term, the actor got bail in the case for killing blackbucks, but was rearrested in the case for killing chinkaras. The Rajasthan High Court had acquitted Salman Khan in the two chinakara poaching cases, while the Jodhpur court had acquitted Khan in the Arms Case.
However, the April 5 verdict convicting Salman of killing blackbucks leaves no room for bail till Friday, for the stringent Wildlife Protection Act applies to the offence.
The court has stated the "accused is a famous film actor and any deed done by him will be followed by people, despite knowing this he killed two blackbucks. He killed the blackbucks for enjoyment. Under Section 51 of the Wildlife Act, the accused gets punishment for five years in jail with a penalty of Rs 5,000".
5. Failing Constitution and Wildlife Protection Act
When Salman Khan and his friends went on a hunting picnic, they failed their fundamental duty as adult citizens of India. According to our Constitution, it is every individual's duty “protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures”.
One would expect influential citizens like Salman and his friends to set an example for protecting the wild, not hunting it, but the course of the case has proved otherwise.
The Wildlife protection Act, 1972 accords the endangered blackbucks and chinkaras the highest priority under its first schedule. It states: "No person shall hunt any wild animal specified in Schedule I, II, III and IV."
This makes the act of hunting the deer punishable with one to six years in prison.