Five held with six leopard skins in Nabarangpur

India: In a major haul, forest officials on Tuesday seized six leopard skins and several nails of the animals in Nabarangpur district and arrested five persons in this connection.

"Four of the skins are of adult leopards. The remaining two belong to leopards aged 18-24 months. The value of leopard skin in international markets is several lakh rupees," said divisional forest officer (DFO), Nabarangpur, Swayam Mallick.


The DFO said the five were nabbed in a decoy carried out by 30 forest officials over nine months. "Our officials approached the five accused as prospective buyers. The price of each skin was fixed at Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000," he said.


Mallick said those arrested are primary purchasers and not poachers. "During interrogation, they confessed to have bought the skins from poachers," he said.


Four of them belong to Kalahandi district, while one is a native of Dasmantpur in Koraput district. They were booked under the Wildlife Protection Act.


"We suspect the leopards were killed along the Nabarangpur-Kalahandi border. There are bullet wounds on fours skins. The other two may have been poisoned," he said. They will seek the remand of the accused.

(Source: The Times of India))