Forest officials of the Nabarangpur Forest Division seized four leopard skins and rescued a live pangolin after arresting six poachers from the Kosagumuda area on Wednesday.
District Forest Officer Swayam Mallik said that acting on a tipoff, a special team led by Forest Range Officer Dhanurjaya Mahapatra and Forester Jagannath Prasad Bissoi arrested the poachers, four from Chhattisgarh and two from Nabarangpur district.
Four cases have been registered and the six accused were forwarded to the Nabarangpur Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate Court, Mallick said.
The forest officials also seized four motorcycles and four mobile phones from their possessions. The leopard and pangolin are Schedule-I animals as per the Wild Protection Act, 1972.