In one of the biggest wildlife contraband seizures in recent years, five tiger pelts and bones weighing about 125 kg were seized by the special task force of the police at Shyampur in Haridwar late on Sunday night. While one member of a Bawaria gang was arrested by the STF, four other suspects escaped. Wildlife activists point out that the State authorities are not doing the needful to improve wildlife protection with the forest department's anti-poaching cell remaining short of personnel and other resources.
The STF had been receiving information about some members of a Bawaria gang active in poaching wildlife in the jungles of Uttarakhand and neighbouring areas of Uttar Pradesh. The STF SSP, P Renuka Devi, formed a team under sub-inspector SK Shah to verify these reports, identify the suspects and keep them under surveillance. This team caught gang member Ramchandra alias Chander with five tiger pelts and three bags full of tiger bones in Shyampur in Haridwar while four other gang members escaped from the spot.
Upon questioning, the arrested man said that tigers had been poached using steel traps in the forests of Corbett tiger landscape and Rajaji tiger reserve in Haridwar, Kotdwar and neighbouring UP. He named the escaped men as Hajari, Rambhagat, Mukhtiyar and Madia alias Madu - all from Bathinda in Punjab. The poachers used steel traps and bludgeoned the trapped tigers to death. They had planned to smuggle the tiger pelts and bones to Najibabad where they were set to make a deal with some interested buyers from Nepal or Tibet. The tiger pelts and bones seized are estimated to be valued at Rs 70 lakh in the international market. According to the STF, the pelts of five tigers are 10 to 12 feet in length and are believed to have been killed in the past two to five months.
Shyampur police SHO Mahesh Purval told 'The Pioneer' that a case had been booked under the Wildlife Protection Act and efforts were underway to nab the absconding gang members.
These poachers are reported to have been active for some years now and are known to wrap the big cat pelts in paper and store these in polythene bags buried underground. Twenty such spots have been marked in the forests with more wildlife contraband seizures likely to occur, say officials.
The Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and director of the anti-poaching cell, Dhananjai Mohan, said that further information regarding wildlife crimes is expected in the near future.
Meanwhile, wildlife activists have lambasted the department for failing to take effective action against poaching. It should be mentioned here that earlier on Saturday, two steel traps and one knife were seized in the Kotawali range in a joint operation involving Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, TRAFFIC India and the Haridwar forest division. While the State authorities claim to be ensuring improved wildlife security, observers point out that the department has failed to act as required for wildlife security. Despite repeated proposals submitted to the higher authorities for building the anti-poaching cell with required number of personnel and other resources, this cell continues mainly with the CCF as its director.