NUAPADA: In a major breakthrough, officials of Nuapada forest division have arrested five poachers and seized several wildlife items including a tiger skin and claw from their possession.
The accused are Badan Majhi (45) of Khadupani village, Khageswar Majhi (62) of Chikalchuan, Sachindra Majhi (36) and Bada Majhi (61) of Patdhara and Achyutananda Majhi (23) of Bhaludungri. A piece of tiger hide measuring 6x6 inches, claw, four pangolin scales, electric wire traps besides a bow and arrows were seized from them.
Divisional forest officer (DFO), territorial Sushil Tripathy said the poachers were detained on June 3. After their interrogation, they were arrested on June 5 and produced in court on Tuesday evening.
Sources said poachers who were earlier active in Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary, have started entering the forests of neighbouring Chhattisgarh taking advantage of the lack of surveillance in the border areas. A few weeks back, Chhattisgarh forest officials noticed the frequent movement of two Royal Bengal Tigers (RBTs) in the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve and were constantly monitoring the big cats through trap cameras.
However, one of the tigers went missing recently and its pictures could not be captured by the cameras.
Suspecting that the big cat might have been killed by poachers, the forest officials launched an investigation. Based on the evidence, they presumed that the poachers came from the neighbouring Nuapada district.
Subsequently, they informed Nuapada forest officials. Subsequently, a team of Nuapada and Chhattisgarh forest personnel detained the five poachers and seized the wildlife articles from them.
The DFO said, “We are yet to ascertain the involvement of the arrested poachers in hunting of the tiger in Chhattisgarh. Besides, we are yet to verify if the seized hide is of the hunted tiger. A case has been registered under section 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1980 and further investigation is underway.”