3 arrested for poaching

Three persons have been arrested in connection with the recent poaching of a tiger in the Sunderbans. Atanu Raha, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Director of Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve, said: 8220;The case has been handed over to the CID. Three persons were arrested on Friday and investigation is on.8221; The CID, however, denied the arrests. Inspector General CID Sanjay Mukherjee said: 8220;We do not have any information on arrests. A team, led by a senior IPS officer, had visited the area on October 8. We got a few leads and are still on the lookout for more clues.8221;

The Wildlife Protection Act provides that a poacher could be jailed for up to seven years and a fine of Rs 25,000 can be imposed on him. The carcass of an adult tiger was spotted in the Bidya river in Gosaba area of Sunderbans on Monday by tourists, who immediately informed the forest officials.

On Tuesday, a postmortem was conducted on the big cat that revealed that it had two bullet injuries on its body 8212; in the head and neck. The one that hit the head passed through the brain, causing haemorrhage and killing the animal instantly.

Field Director of the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve Niraj Singhal said, 8220; It is likely that the tiger was killed 72 hours ago between October 4 to 6.8221; The postmortem report also said the bullets were fired from country-made revolvers. However, no part of the carcass was missing. The skin and claws of the tiger, which fetch good money in the international market, were intact. The case was then handed over to the CID for investigation after the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee expressed concern over the incident.