An official at Iran's Environment Protection Organization (IEPO) has said that new hunting laws, approved by the Supreme Environment Council in March 2015, pay more attention to endangered species and impose tougher penalties on people hunting these animals.

Ali Teimouri further said that the fine hunters have to pay for the Asiatic cheetah has increased to more than $30,000 from over $6,000 and the fees for hunting the Persian leopard stand at over $25,000, up from around $1,600.

The penalties imposed for killing the brown bear and Persian fallow deer are more than $16,000 and $20,000 respectively, and above $11,000 for red deer and Roe deer, he added.

By IFP