Five held in Gajaldoba near Oodlabari with leopard skin... arrested forest guide

TT, 21 January 2019, Siliguri/Jalpaiguri: The special task force of the state forest department arrested five persons from the Dooars in Jalpaiguri district and seized leopard skin from them on Sunday evening.

Among those arrested, include a forest guide of Gorumara National Park. They had plans to smuggle the skin to Nepal, foresters said.

The task force had a tip off that a group of people who hail from Lataguri and Nagrakata are looking for buyers of Nepal and want to sell a leopard skin. Some members of the task force could contact them, posing as potential buyers and offering a sum of Rs 10 lakhs for the skin.

"At around 3pm on Sunday we spotted the gang at Gajoldoba and could intercept them. They were carrying the skin in a school bag. The skin appears to be raw as there are blood clots. Also, the miscreants had applied turmeric powder on it to avoid decomposition," Sanjay Dutta, the range officer of the special task force, said.

Those arrested have been identified as Kishan Tamang, Mohan Munda, Sanjay Adhikary, Ranjit Mohanta and Bikas Rai. Among them, Ranjit works as a forest guide in Gorumara, said the forest official.

During preliminary interrogation, they admitted that the animal was killed in a tea garden area in the Dooars about a week ago.

"They had trapped the animal in a tea garden that is adjacent to the India-Bhutan border. They then killed it and consumed its meat. It is surprising that one of them works as a forest guide in Gorumara for around three years and is supposed to work for conservation of wild animals. We will interrogate them further to know the name of other gang members," said Dutta.

Punjab News Express, KOLKATA: Five people were arrested in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district for trafficking a leopard skin worth Rs. 10 lakh from Gorumara enroute to Nepal, Belacoba Forest Range Officer Sanjay Dutta said on Monday.

Based on prior information a special team started tracking the traffickers, an official statement said.

The team followed Bikash Rai (30), Ranjit Mohanta (24), Sanjay Adhikary (22), Mohan Munda (28) and Kishan Tamang (37) and arrested them on Sunday near Gajoldoba and Odlabari.

A leopard's skin measuring 10 ft was recovered from them. They had negotiated for Rs 10 lakh for it with other traffickers.

The animal is suspected to have been killed just four to five days earlier.

"They have confessed that they were involved in hunting the leopard in the forest area of Dooars," the statement added.