M.P. police arrest tiger skin smuggler

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The Hindu
30/07/2005
Staff Correspondent
Is alleged to have links with Sansar Chand

BHOPAL: In a major breakthrough, the Chhattarpur police on Friday arrested an alleged tiger skin smuggler who has reportedly confessed to his involvement in the smuggling at least five tiger skins and 30 leopard skins during the last few years.

The Chhattarpur Superintendent of Police, Yogesh Chaudhary, told The Hindu that Mohammed Raees of Bandhni village was arrested on Friday. He had allegedly admitted to being engaged in the smuggling of wild animal skins for five to seven years and was also linked with the recently arrested international tiger skin smuggler Sansar Chand.

The last tiger skin smuggled out of the area by him was sometime in the last quarter of 2004. Describing the modus operandi of the accused, Mr. Chaudhary said he used to procure tiger skins from poachers belonging to the Pardhi tribe by paying Rs. 50,000 for each skin. These were then packed and routed to Delhi and other places fetching him Rs. 65,000 for each skin. On a leopard skin, the accused was said to be making a profit of over Rs. 5, 000. The police have also recovered a trap used for killing wild animals and investigations are on to find Mohammed Raees' direct involvement in poaching of tigers.

In another related development, the Bhopal police on Thursday nabbed a youngster with the skin of a freshly killed leopard from the bus stand. The police said that this person has been identified as Azad, alias Aayat Gond (25) resident of Bhimnagar slums at Gwalior. He said this skin, procured from a person at Obaidullaganj near here, was being taken to be sold at Shivpuri. Earlier, on March 6 this year, a leopard skin was seized and a Nepali citizen arrested in Bhopal. When contacted, a senior State Forest department officer told this correspondent that they are following a lead and were expecting a major poaching related seizure and arrest in Shivpuri district. Poaching continues unabated in the State. On December 14, 2004, four tiger claws were found near Bichwa village in the Rukhad range of Seoni district near the Pench Tiger Reserve.

Three days later, the carcass of a tigress and her cub was found near Sawrireeth village in the south territorial forest division of Seoni. On December 19, 2004, another tiger died under unnatural circumstances in the Totladoh beat of Pench Tiger Reserve.

In December 2004, one tiger skin and two leopard skins were seized near the Kanha Tiger Reserve. In February 2005, two tiger skins were recovered from the Bahmani area of Kanha Tiger Reserve. Around the same period, six claws and four traps used for poaching were seized from the Seoni-Chhindawara road. Serious concern was also raised in forestry circles here when some wild dogs were found poisoned 4 km from the Mukhi Gate of Kanha Tiger Reserve on March 20 this year. They were found to have died after drinking water from a poisoned water hole or eating the poisoned carcass of a tiger kill that was found one km away from the area where the wild dogs had died.

The latest tiger census in National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries in the State shows there are now 394 tigers in these Protected Areas against 416 recorded during the last census. What is most alarming is that not a single tiger has been counted in the Palpur Kuno Sanctuary and the Durgawati Sanctuary this time whereas the last tiger census showed seven tigers in Palpur Kuno and six in Durgawati.

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