BHUBANESWAR: Forest officials of Athagarh division have busted a pangolin smuggling racket and arrested six persons in 36 hours.
Pangolin scales have also been recovered from them.
Athagarh Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Sasmita Lenka said acting on a tip off forest officials of the division arrested Akash and Satia from Sunimuha Reserve Forest of Khuntuni Range on Thursday and recovered pangolin scales from them.
The officials also managed to get lead from the duo about involvement of others in this racket and nabbed the four more persons on Friday.
Two others, involved in the racket, are absconding. The DFO said the arrested individuals have admitted their involvement in trading of pangolins. They were trading pangolin and their scales in and outside the State.
A lot of information regarding other traders involved in the racket have been found from the cell phones seized from them.
Investigation into the matter is on and forest officials are trying to find out if the smugglers have any link with the inter-state and international smuggling racket, the DFO said and added that more pangolin scales are expected to be recovered from them.