STF nabs two, including lecturer in Odisha for smuggling leopard skins
BHUBANESWAR: The special task force (STF) of Crime Branch on Monday arrested two persons, including a lecturer of a private arts college, from a forest in Nayagarh district on charges of smuggling wildlife organs. The STF seized two leopard skins and two spotted-deer skins from the accused, who were identified as Pratap Kumar Nayak (24) and Kishore Chandra Dehury (29). Dehury teaches in a college in Nayagarh.
Sources said the accused were about to strike a deal to sell the expensive skins of leopard and spotted-deer in Giripuja forest in Dasapalla area when the STF sleuths swooped down on them. The accused, who are residents of Nayagarh district, planned to sell each leopard skin for Rs 7 lakh and deer skin for Rs 1 lakh. STF came to know that a man from Dasapalla had contacted the two smugglers to buy the animal skins to decorate his home.
“We are trying to find out the source from where the accused possessed leopard and deer skins. It is not yet clear whether the accused killed the animals. During interrogation, they claimed that a tribal poacher sold the animal skins to them for a few thousands of rupees. We will take the accused on remand for questioning,” STF’s deputy inspector general J N Pankaj told TOI.
The STF would send the seized animal skins to the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun for forensic examination. The chemical or forensic test would ascertain the species and age of the animals as well as the nature of death. “We found some holes in a leopard skin, triggering suspicion that the animal might have been gunned down by poachers. The other leopard skin had a broken ankle of the animal that indicates that poachers might have laid a trap to catch animals. The wildlife forensic examination would bring clarity,” Pankaj said.
In the last one and a half years, the STF busted three major wildlife organ smuggling rackets in the state. In November 2019, the STF arrested three persons in Kalahandi district and seized a leopard skin and ivory from them. In July 2019, the STF arrested a jail warder and a police havildar for their alleged links with a leopard smuggling racket in Deogarh district. In March 2019, the STF personnel had seized four leopard skins from Kuchinda area in Sambalpur district and arrested ten persons in phases.