Nagpur, India: Pune and Jalgaon customs department officials, carrying out a joint operation, arrested six persons, including two women, for trafficking a tiger skin. The accused have been booked under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Based on specific information, the officers of Nagpur customs, with the assistance of their Pune counterparts, busted the wildlife smuggling racket on July 25 and recovered a tiger skin from Jalgaon.

Talking to TOI, Jalgaon forest officials said that preliminary investigations show the tiger might have been poisoned on the Madhya Pradesh side, 4km away from the Maharashtra border. The accused sprayed pesticide on a nilgai carcass it had killed 45 days ago, they said. “We are matching the stripe pattern from data available with Melghat Tiger Reserve (MTR) and Yawal Wildlife Sanctuary to identify the tiger,” said officials. “Melghat boundary is 28km from the area where the tiger was killed. We also suspect the adult tiger may be from Muktai Bhavani Conservation Reserve in Jalgaon district where there is a presence of big cats,” said A Praveen, deputy conservator of forest, Jalgaon. Forest officials are also exploring the interstate and international links as a person from Bhopal is involved. The customs department learned about the poaching based on the call detail records (CDR) of some accused who were involved in a tiger-related case in Pune. “Jalgaon division has no history of tiger poaching. Hence, we are exploring if the tiger was killed based on a demand created for the skin. The accused will be produced in court on Sunday. We will seek a five-day forest custody remand as we need to recover other body parts & identify links,” said officials.

Source:(Times of India)