Mystery still shrouded the recovery of a decomposed tiger carcass at the Debrigarh forest in Bargarh district as Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Abhay Kumar Dalai on Sunday said that the arrested persons confessed to having killed a Royal Bengal Tiger.
The DFO’s revelation contradicted the PCCF’s and Forest Minister Bijayshree Routray’s statement that the carcass recovered on October 28 was of a leopard.
While forest officials arrested three persons on Saturday in connection with the ‘poaching’, another person was arrested on Sunday, according to reports.
This apart, samples from the carcass have been sent to the Wildlife Institute in Dehradun and National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bengaluru for examination, official sources said.
An official stated that the animal’s paws, nails and whisker seized suggest of being that of a Royal Bengal Tiger.