SAMBALPUR: Forest officials caught three poachers red-handed while they were de-skinning and cooking leopard meet in Hiraloi village near Landakot reserve forest under Rairakhol forest division in the district on Tuesday.
The accused have been identified as Jay Mahananda, Prafulla Barla and Kumar Topno. The forest officials also seized the leopard skin and meat besides one country-made gun, five lead bullets, sharp objects and few other wildlife articles from their possession.
According to reports, acting on reliable information, a forest team on the direction of Rairakhol DFO, Arvind Mohanty raided the houses of the accused in the Hiraloi village. During the raid at Topno’s house, the officials recovered the leopard skin, meat besides weapon and nabbed the three accused.
DFO Mohanty said, “The poachers must have killed the leopard a day ago. It was about 10-year-old. They had already de-skinned it when the team reached there and were cooking the meat. There are more people involved in this crime and efforts are on to nab them.” Further investigation is underway. The leopard skin will be sent to WII for examination, he added.