Four persons were arrested with one tiger pelt along with the skull and bones of the big cat on the Haridwar-Dehradun road near Raiwala on Sunday. The wildlife contraband smugglers were apprehended by a team of the police special task force acting on information about wildlife poaching in the region. Wildlife activists have expressed concern at the level of wildlife security while stating that there have been at least seven seizures of tiger pelts, bones and body parts since December last year till now.
The STF senior superintendent of police,Renuka Devi had been receiving tip offs repeatedly to the effect that there were some people had been staying illegally in the Rajaji and Corbett national park areas while carrying out illegal wildlife poaching activities. The wildlife contraband thus gathered was reported to being smuggled to persons from Nepal and Tibet. The STF SSP then formed a team under sub inspector Santosh Shah for the task of verifying such reports, identifying the persons involved in poaching activities and for ensuring an alert eye on the activities of such identified wildlife criminals. Taking action on information received by the STF, the police team with the assistance of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) was successful in catching four men said to be members of an international wildlife crime nexus on Sunday. According to the STF, the four men were identified as Badiwala village, Haridwar resident Meer Hamza, Van Gujjar settlement Gaindikhata (Haridwar) resident Mohammed Alam, Jahanpur Pahadi village, Biharigarh, resident Dau and Selaqui, Dehradun resident Santosh Duggal. The four were caught with one tiger pelt measuring about 11 feet in length and seven feet in width, one tiger skull and tiger bones weighing about 25 kilogrammes. Along with the wildlife contraband and two motorcycles, these men were caught near Teenpani on the Haridwar-Dehradun road. A case has been registered in the Raiwala police station against the four accused men under the Wildlife Protection Act. They were reported to be undergoing detailed questioning at the time of this report being filed.
A wildlife activist wanting to remain anonymous said that some members of the Van Gujjar community have taken to helping and even getting involved in wildlife crimes from guiding and sheltering the poacher to participating in the hunt.
“The authorities should have ensured that the desired level of resettlement of such forest dependent communities is facilitated in order to boost wildlife security and assistance of Van Gujjar community members in environmental and wildlife protection works.
Since the month of December last year till date, at least half a dozen tiger pelt seizures have been made- many of them by the police and STF. Considering the trend in recent wildlife contraband seizures, it appears as if the police is acting more efficiently to clamp down on wildlife contraband smuggling and other wildlife crimes compared to the forest department,” he said.