Forest officials seize panther skin in Sabarkantha,four held

Later,the officials found it to be a panther skin. They said that a tiger skin can fetch at least Rs 10 lakh and the villager possessing the skin had quoted a price of Rs 12 lakh. When they told the villager that it was not a tiger skin,he immediately came down to Rs 2 lakh.

Since the officials wanted to buy time to reach the Vjaynagar forest post with the villager,they quoted Rs 10,000. Finally,the ‘deal’ was sealed for Rs 50,000 and by that time they had reached the police outpost,where the villager was arrested. After his questioning,three more persons were held,but the kingpin could not be arrested.

Johri said the skin appeared to be old and had been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory to determine the same. He said that his department wanted to confirm its age because Maharaja of Vijaynagar had some time ago reported theft of a panther skin from his house.

“We want to confirm if it is the old skin or a new one. If it is old,then chances are that it is the one that was stolen from the Maharaja’s house,” said Johri.

Leopardess attempts to free big cat from cage

RAJKOT: A leopardess attempted to break the iron cage to free a leopard trapped by the Forest department in Adri village in Veraval taluka of Junagadh district on Wednesday. Forest officers had placed the cage inside a field in the village after sightings of a leopard was reported. As the big cat got trapped,the foresters saw a leopardess trying to break the grille,but she was scared away.