Are villagers hunting pandas for their pelts? Officials to investigate
The State Forestry Administration is investigating accusations that villagers in Ya'an , Sichuan province , were offered up to 500,000 yuan for a giant panda pelt by an alleged police informer.
At least three villagers in Baoxing county, Ya'an, were jailed for up to 101/2 years for 'illegally hunting and trading the rarest national heirloom' earlier this year, but police informer Gan Liejian , who persuaded the trio to hunt pandas, was the key witness in their trials and escaped prosecution, an investigative report by Nanfang Weekend found.
It said Mr Gan, using various aliases, had encouraged at least 15 villagers in Baoxing to hunt giant pandas by offering them up to 500,000 yuan for a pelt several years ago.
Mr Gan claimed he was seeking panda skins for his Japanese boss, whose close ties with local officials would protect villagers from being punished, the report said.
'He said the boss could advance me 20,000 yuan,' one villager said in the report. 'After I finished the deal, the boss would also offer me a good job in his factory in Chongqing paying 50,000 yuan a year.'
Villagers earned less than 3,000 yuan a year, the report said.
Li Qijun , a hunter from Baoxing's Ruobi village, killed and skinned a giant panda in June after his friend Hu Hongqiang told him of Mr Gan's offer.
Li and Hu were arrested on July 16 by police from neighbouring Rongchang county, for whom Mr Gan was an informer, the report, published on Thursday, cited a local government source as saying.
Four months earlier, 60-year-old Sun Shiqun , from Yandao township in Baoxing, was arrested by Rongchang county police when she showed a red panda pelt to Mr Gan.
Sun was sentenced to 10 years' jail, while Li and Hu were jailed for 101/2 years, earlier reports said. All three have appealed and claimed they were entrapped by Mr Gan.
There are about 1,590 giant pandas living in the wild, most in the mountains of southwestern China. The Ya'an reserve is home to about 300 wild giant pandas.
Cui Xuezhen , a panda protection expert, told the newspaper at least 19 giant pandas had been killed and skinned in the past 20 years and questioned why only hunters were arrested, but no dealers.
The report has stirred debate in mainland internet chat rooms, with many accusing the police of entrapment in an effort to win acclaim.
Xinhua said on Friday the State Forestry Administration had set up an investigation.
'We have sent a working group to supervise the investigations and we will prosecute anyone involved,' administration spokesman Cao Qingyao was quoted as saying.
Hu Xingdou , a political analyst from the Beijing Institute of Technology, said Rongchang county police and Mr Gan were the prime instigators.
'Villagers were lured by attractive bait, while police totally ignored social morality, their obligations and discipline and should be blamed more.'
