Five persons were arrested on Friday with a leopard skin worth Rs 4 lakh from Bhilpur village of Chhota Udepur district, forest officials said. Acting on a tip-off, the Chhota Udepur forest range officials had laid a trap and approached the accused of buying the animal skin. When the accused arrived at the decided spot to make the transaction, they were nabbed by the forest officials. This is the first such case in over a decade, the forest officials said. Notably, the forest ranges of Chhota Udepur are home to around 80 leopards. The accused have been identified as Kanaksinh Vadri, a native of Piparkota village; Parsing Mahida, Kalubhai Mahida, Tersinh Mohaniya and Manubhai Mohaniya, all natives of Dhanpur village. The forest officials have also seized their vehicles. All the accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act. “We will produce them in court and seek remand. We are yet to investigate whether they first killed a leopard and then skinned it or whether they skinned a dead leopard. We will also look into if they acquired the skin from someone else. So far none of the accused have any prior offence registered against them,” said Assistant Conservator of Forests, Chhota Udepur Range, Nilesh Pandya.
