BHUBANESWAR: The Forest department has sought help from the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) in Jabalpur to ascertain the criminal antecedents of the six accused including a woman, who were allegedly involved in smuggling of the snake venom.Bhubaneswar range officials had nabbed the accused on March 27 and seized two bottles - 750 ml each - of venom from them.
The samples of the seized venom were sent to State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) and Centre for Wildlife Health of Odisha University of Agriculture & Technology (OUAT) for further examination on Wednesday.Forest Department officials are even considering sending the seized samples to Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in Kolkata and Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in Dehradun.
Bhubaneswar range office has written to Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Shashi Paul and requested him to direct Balangir Divisional Forest Officer to conduct raids and apprehend the prime accused of the racket.
The prime accused is a native of Balangir. His son Suraj Kumar Dash has been arrested. Initial investigation suggests that such a huge quantity of venom was not procured from Balangir and had likely been obtained from Chhattisgarh. As three accused are natives of Balasore district, they had possibly planned to sell off the venom in Kolkata but a trap was laid and all of them were nabbed in the city, forest officials said.