BHUBANESWAR: In a joint operation, forest department officials from the Baripada division and south division of Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) seized four leopard skins and arrested three wildlife traders.
The accused were identified as Budhuram Singh, Mangal Singh and Rupy Marndi.
"These people are both poachers and traders. They are the ones who laid traps to hunt leopards and also indulge in trading. In many cases, a demand is made from the customer and then they hunt. In others, skins of animals are kept and the traders use a conduit through whom those can be sold," said Santosh Joshi, divisional forest officer, Baripada.
Sunday's seizure comes a day after Special Task Force (STF) of the crime branch recovered three leopard skins on Saturday and arrested one trader. The STF has so far seized 43 leopard hides in five years. The forest department will soon prepare a database of leopard skins seized in different divisions.
Forest officials said since tigers roam and dominate STR, leopards are pushed nearer to human settlements. Poachers take advantage of this and kill the leopards, a forest official said.
They use powerful flash lights to stun leopards in the wild and either use a net to trap it alive or kill it using arrow or guns, the forest official added.
The seizure of four leopard skins from around Similipal has come three months after the STF seized the hide of a Royal Bengal tiger inside the buffer area of Similipal in Udala range.
It was the second tiger skin seized in the state with the first one being recovered last year. The STF had come to know that the person arrested was a carrier. It was suspected that the tiger was hunted by a local poacher.
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