RAJKOT: Senior BJP leader and former law minister Dilip Sanghani ruffled many feathers when he heaped praises on a shepherd who had axed to death a lioness in Amreli district last month.

Sanghani announced public felicitation of the arrested man Manu Charola for bravely fighting the lioness which had preyed on his goat. It was on October 21 that Charola had attacked the lioness thrice with an axe in his native Khadadhar village of Khambha taluka. Charola was arrested by the forest department and the court sent him to judicial custody.

Sanghani hit out at the forest department and demanded that the government seriously considers changes in the law to protect people who are forced to kill wild animals in self defence or save their livestock, especially in revenue areas.

Sanghani, who had lost 2017 assembly elections from Dhari constituency, met Charola in Amreli jail. Khadadhar village falls under Dhari constituency.

“Forest department has wrongly arrested a poor person by invoking stringent sections of the law. Charola is not an offender as he only tried to protect his means of livelihood. This is his right. He was wrongly declared absconding and arrested later,” the former MP told media persons outside the jail.

“We will publicly honour Charola after he gets bail. In the past too, we have appreciated and felicitated those who had fought lions,” he said.

Making light of the massive rescue operation that was launched to capture the leopard which had sneaked into the secretariat in Gandhinagar on Monday. “A team of 250 foresters was rushed to the secretariat when just one leopard had entered. In villages here, people have been living under the constant fear of wild animals like leopards and lions,” he said.

The BJP leader also dared animal rights activists to stay for a week in the areas where lions are seen in big numbers and offered to fully sponsor their stay.

“If any wild animal feels hungry, one of you could be its prey,” he quipped.

