Nabarangpur: Basant Rath, Reporter.
The officials of the Nabarangpur forest division
seized four leopard skins, one live Pangolin and arrested six persons from
Kosagumuda border to Chhattisgarh.The District Forest Officer Swayam Mallik, said that the officials were acting on a tipoff
that some men from Chattisghar and
Nabarangpur were trying to sell leopard skin. “We formed a special team led by
range officer Dhanurjaya Mahapatra, with forester Jagannath Prasad Bissoiy,
arrested four poachers of Chattisghar,
and two from Nabarangpur district, with the leopard skins and live Pagolin,
from their possession. The forest officials also seized four motorcycles, four mobile phones
from the accused persons. The leopard
and pangolin are schedule-I animals as per wild protection Act, 1972, Mallick
said four cases have been registered and six accused have already been
forwarded to the court of Sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Nabarangpur, Mallick added.
It is pertinent to mention here that during in
the month of February six leopard skins, tiger and bear teeth as well as a bear
paw had been seized by forest official and arrested five persons from Indravati
hydro project area at Nabarangpur-Kalhandi border. Similarly during May 192
live Indian Soft Shelled Turtles had been seized at Chandahandi by the forest
division officials of Nabarangpur one accused had been forwarded to the court.
The work of Nabarangpur forest division is in consonance with this year’s theme
of world environment day celebration, i.e. “fight against the illegal trade in
wildlife for live” Zero tolerance for the illegal trade in wildlife.
