A man has been arrested along with a leopard skin in Chhattisgarh's Gariaband district, police said on Tuesday. Buduram Gond (40) of Raidhar, Odisha, was arrested by a special team from Shuklabhata village in Baghnala police station limits, Superintendent of Police Bhojram Patel said.
"We had input that a man was trying to find a buyer for a leopard skin. An armed police team was sent to Shuklabhata as it is a Naxalite infested region. The team nabbed the accused," said the officer.
Gond confessed to poisoning a water body to kill the big cat.
The skin is 82 inches long from head to tail. The tail is 35 inches long and the body mid-section is 17 inches long. The head is 10 inches wide with 1 nail each in all four legs, said the officer. Gond has been booked under Sections 9, 39 (B), 51,52 of the Wildlife Protection Act.