West Bengal: Three poachers held, 8-feet-long leopard hide seized

The head of the department’s Special Task Force and Belakoba Ranger, Sanjay Dutta, executed the operation.

THREE POACHERS have been arrested after an 8-foot-long skin of an adult leopard was seized from Phulbari in Jalpaiguri.
The accused, Kumar Rai (75) from Bhutan and Kumar Rai (35) and Rudra Prasad Gelal (40) from Nepal, were arrested by the state forest department on Monday after officials found the leopard skin, which had fresh blood marks.

The head of the department’s Special Task Force and Belakoba Ranger, Sanjay Dutta, executed the operation. “The three have been booked under the Wildlife (Protection) Act. We are looking for the kingpin, who has been identified,” Dutta said. They have been remanded to 14-days judicial custody.

The racket is allegedly led by Pawan Khatak, from whose residence, 55 kg of black bear hair and 1 kg of elephant tusk was recovered last Saturday.

“He stays in Siliguri and Nepal. He is the main accused… he uses his network to procure wildlife articles from Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and other areas, and then smuggles the same. He is wanted by the CBI, Rajasthan Police and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau in Delhi. After his house was raided, officials received a tip-off that leopard skin was likely to be smuggled. Following this, the accused were arrested,” said Dutta.