Poachers armed with cyanide

The two members of the gang arrested by foresters from the Jaldapara National Park

AVIJIT SINHA, TT, Feb 15, 2018, Siliguri: Potassium cyanide has been seized from a gang of suspected poachers, pointing to a new "arsenal" that has left forest officials worried.

The cyanide was found along with injection syringes and catapults after the arrest of two persons from Alipurduar district on Tuesday night during a probe into the poaching of a rhino on February 5 in the Jaldapara National Park.

Bimal Narjinari, a resident of Munshipara in Salkumarhat near Jaldapara, and Gopal Singha, from Ashwininagar in Madarihat, have admitted during interrogation that instead of guns, they are using these chemicals to tranquilise animals before poaching, forest officials said.

"After the poaching, we started probing and nabbed six persons from different locations of Dooars. The horn of the rhino was also recovered, along with a .303 rifle. During interrogation, they revealed that the gang is run by Bimal Narjinari and Gopal Singha. Both of them were arrested on Tuesday night," said a forest official.

During the raid, foresters found stocks of the poison (cyanide), syringes and catapults from their house.

"What they told us was startling. The catapults are made in Arunachal Pradesh. Also, they have obtained the poison from there. Instead of using guns, they are using catapults from a close range to hit the animal with syringes, which are dipped in poison," the official added.

In the northeast states the plan has worked as the animal in target, loses consciousness within 15 minutesor so.

"It is like using a dart, where the difference is that instead of medicines, these people are using poison. They then get near the animal, cut its horn or tusks, and leave the spot," a source said

Both Bimal and Gopal, in fact, have mentioned that the strategy works better than guns.

They have mentioned that if a gunshot is fired, it might alert forest guards. Also, carrying a gun into the forest is also risky and can lead to arrests. Instead, carrying catapults and syringes, which can be concealed in the body, might not raise suspicions among forest guards.

"This new trend is indeed a major concern for us. It is not feasible to thoroughly check everybody getting into the forest area in some pretext or another. Many people reside in forest villages which are on the fringes of wildlife habitats and recurring checking might leave them disgruntled," a senior official of the department said.