Continuing the crackdown on illegal wildlife traders, a joint team of forest officials and police personnel on Sunday seized four more tiger skins in Kalahandi district.
The team has seized the hides on a raid on the house of one Ranga Charan Bhoi at Bafla village in the district.So far, nine tiger skins have been seized since Saturday, Kalahandi DFO Nitish Kumar said. “Four more leopard skins have been seized.
All the accused are being interrogated to ascertain the kingpin of the racket,” added Kumar. Besides, the number of accused arrested in the case has risen to seven. All were middlemen and were apprehended while striking a deal with customers, he added.The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Chhattisgarh was first tipped off regarding the illegal trade from a customer and it alerted the Kalahandi forest officials.
A special team was formed which carried out raids at several places at Madanpur Rampur under North Forest Division in the district and Junagarh area of south division and seized five skins with tiger nails.
The team has arrested Manoj Behera from Madanpur Rampur, Narottam Bhoi of Narla, Ranga Charan Bhoi of Bafla village, Kartik Rana of Amatha village in the district.
Similarly, Bhuliar Bag, Kodanda Gouda and Uansu Jani of Kengar village under the South Division have also been arrested with seizure of two tiger skins.