Bengal-Assam joint war on wildlife crimes

.TT, 31 Oct 2019, Jalpaiguri: Forest officers of Bengal and Assam have decided to join hands to tackle illegal wildlife trade in the region.

On Wednesday, top officers of the Assam forest department visited Jalpaiguri to interrogate two Bhutan nationals,who were arrested by the special task force of the Bengal forest department (Jalpaiguri)..

“ We will jointly work to tackle the illegal wildlife trade.We will try to  find out who are  the other members involved in this poaching gang. We have appealed to the court to grant us custody of the duo so that we can take them to Assam, ” said Abbas Ali Dewan, additional conservation of forest, Assam.

The task force of Bengal had arrest ed Namgey Wangdi and Younga Nandang from Hasimara in Alipurduar district on October 16 with a royal Bengal tiger's skin.

Sources said the foresters of the two states would jointly interrogate the arrested duo at the district correctional home of Jalpaiguri on Thursday.

“They killed the tiger in the Manas wildlife sanctuary (in Assam) in January this year. We had arrested the main shooter from Assam sometime back.

The Bhutanese citizens, who were part of the poaching gang, were arrested by the special task force of Bengal forest  department early this month,” said Dewan.

According to the forestes of Assam, the latest tiger census report put the animal population in Manas at 30,  of  which 25 are full grown. 

 The sources said the special task force led by the Belakoba range officer of the Baikunthapur forest division had conducted a raid at Srirampur, located on the Bengal-Assam border, on June 23 and arrested seven smugglers of animal body parts. The raid had been conducted on the basis of some specific information.  The investigation revealed that the tiger had been poached in the Assam forest. 

“ Following the arrest of the Bhutan duo, the investigators found out that the skin and the body parts were of the tiger killed in Assam, ” said a source.

Bengal foresters on Wednesday show the tiger skin seized from the Bhutan nationals. Picture by Biplab Basak