India: A team Assam Forest Department and police officers on Friday night arrested seven people in the Kohora area of Kaziranga National Park and recovered a large quantity of tiger skin and body parts from them.

Kaziranga officials said two persons were first arrested after a vehicle, based on intelligence inputs, was intercepted on the highway along the national park earlier in the day. Some wildlife body parts were found in the vehicle.

The duo led the sleuths to the house of one Dilip Singh at Kohora. A raid yielded more tiger bones and skin there and five more persons involved in smuggling animal body parts were arrested.

The arrested seven admitted to having killed a tiger at Anjukpani on the southern edge of Kaziranga.

“They were in the process of selling the animal body parts to traffickers when they were caught,” Rohini Ballave Saikia, Divisional Forest Officer of KNP, said.

Animal body parts are in huge demand in some of the South East Asian countries for their use in traditional medicines and some prevailing superstitions.

Assam Forest and Environment Minister Parimal Suklabaidya appreciated the effort of the frontline staff and officers of the department which led to the arrest of seven poachers, saying the government has removed political intervention in the department so that officers and staff can work freely.

(Source: The Hindu)