The chinkara hunting case in Pune that eventually led to the resignation of Maharashtra's Transport Minister Dharmaraobaba Atram, has brought to the fore worrisome aspects of wildlife governance in the country. With the kind of evidence that has surfaced over the past few days, the plot seems to have thickened for Atram. His admission that he was near the spot of hunting on the night of June 14, the recovery of partially burnt hair and skin of a wild animal seized from the Minister's farmhouse in Pachgani near Mahabaleshwar are too strong for Atram to brush it aside as a "campaign by his political rivals'. All of it is now before a court in Saswad town. Apparently, after an initial hitch, the Government, too, appears to have been yielding under intense media pressure over the issue. The authorities, however, have chosen to be tight-lipped about it. The Chief Conservator of Forest (Pune circle) Shirish Asthana has been evading queries about even things that are now a matter of public record. There is little hope of the officials concerned saying anything to the media when they failed to inform the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) B Majumdar. He was in the dark about the whole matter for more than 20 days after the incident happened. "I have sought a report, but haven't yet got any response,' was his reply till about a week ago. Even the Forest Minister evaded his responsibility of informing the people about the case saying that he had decided not to give any press statement on the issue.The obfuscation of the issue by officials and the Minister suggests that there is more to the story. But it's not just Atram whose record has been questioned. People's representatives from all parties in the tiger-human conflict areas of Chandrapur district have displayed antipathy towards wildlife for obvious political considerations. Some of them even went to threaten the Forest Department officials claiming that if tigers were not reigned in, they knew how to take care of (read kill) the animal. The incident accentuates the level of ignorance among politicians about wildlife conservation in the state, which is one of the last repositories of the big cat in the country. Media reports are now talking about the possibility of Atram being a habitual hunter. One of the reports speaks of his recent three-day stay in Konkan as one of his "regular' visits and raises the question if Atram has been at it habitually. There is an urgent need to investigate the case threadbare. The least the Government can do is appoint an independent probe into the matter. It should also expedite forensic and ballistic investigations and make them public without waiting for the media to go after it. If we can try Salman Khan in a similar case, nobody in this case qualifies to be shielded. Sources say that investigators are close to arresting Atram. Some clinching evidences have been recorded by them over the past three days, like where the animal was cut into pieces and where it was cooked (in Atram's farmhouse at Pachgani near Pune). They need to go ahead and do that without any fear. That would be the first step towards an unbiased probe.