BHUBANESWAR: As suspected by the Forest department, the tiger skin seized from M Rampur in Kalahandi district two days back has turned out to be fake. The skin is that of a jackal.Kalahandi (North) DFO Nitish Kumar said experts who examined the skin found out that it was the hide of a jackal that was coloured to make it look like a tiger skin.
PCCF (Wildlife) Shashi Paul had earlier stated that the size of the skin and nails on it were relatively smaller than of a tiger. The department will now send the skin sample to Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Dehradun for confirmation.
A joint team of Kalahandi South and North divisions, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and Chhattisgarh forest officials had recovered the skin from a person in M Rampur area of the North division. Nine leopard skins have also been recovered from the two divisions leading to the arrest of seven persons so far. All these persons were forwarded to court on Monday.
Forest officials said four persons arrested from Kalahandi North division were forwarded to SDJM court in M Rampur, while the remaining three arrested from South division were forwarded to SDJM court in Dharamgarh. Both the divisions have planned to seek the judicial custody of all the accused for further investigation into the inter-state big cat smuggling racket.
The forest officials have also come to know about possession of more leopard skins by a middleman in the smuggling racket, who is still at large. Special team has been formed to nab him, said officials of Kalahandi South division.