WILDLIFE Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), Central Region Jabalpur, in association with STF, CID Crime Branch Odisha, has busted an international gang of poachers and wildlife smugglers and arrested four accused, including one from Jharkhand and three in Odisha.

 

The team seized leopard skin and elephant tusk from three accused at Bhawanipatna village, Kalahandi district in Odisha. A senior officer of WCCB Central Region disclosed that the seizure reveals that 90 per cent of wildlife transportation is being carried out through South-East India. The three accused are a part of an international network involved in poaching and transportation of wildlife outside the country. He disclosed that the arrested were transporting wildlife from India to China through Myanmar, Burma and Nepal. Identity of the accused could not be disclosed to collect more information about other people involved in the gang. WCCB are investigating the case to identify and apprehend other persons working in the international network of poaching and illegal wildlife trade. Three accused belong to Pardhi community and live as nomads in forest areas. They are experts in poaching wild animals and smuggling their organs and other remains out of the country through international network.

 

WCCB Central Region Jabalpur team led by Inspector Devendra Singh Rathore, Rajiv Kumar Dixit and Vipin Kumar Chaturvedi had recently nabbed smugglers busted, four arrested an accused from Jharkhand and seized 22 ‘hattha jodi’ (penis of monitor lizard) from him. Continuing investigations in the case, the team received information about more people involved in poaching and illegal wildlife transportation in Odisha. Acting on the tip-off, WCCB team contacted Special Task Force, CID Crime Branch, Bhubaneswar and reached Odisha. A combined team of WCCB Jabalpur and STC CID Crime Branch started search for identified persons with the help of Odisha Forest Department. The team succeeded in finding three accused and seized skin of a leopard and an elephant tusk.

 

Sources claimed that WCCB team received significant information about wildlife crime network and more people are likely to be apprehended in coming days. STF, CBI CB, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Operations), Bilasini Nayak, Jagannath Prasad Sahu, Nalini Kant Das, Ravindra Nath Jena and Odisha Forest Department, Bhawanipatna’s Gajendra Mathur and Manjhi played a key role in apprehending the poachers.