· Three persons arrested from Kannur

· Skin of adult tiger seized

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Forest Department has busted a Karnataka-based tiger skin trading racket with suspected international links.

At the conclusion of a month-long undercover operation on Tuesday, Forest Department enforcers posing as wildlife trophy collectors "trapped" three persons into selling them the skin of an adult tiger.

A 20-year-old computer science student hailing from Bhagamandalam in Karnataka was among those arrested. The arrests were made in Kannur.

Role of Tibetan settlers

The wildlife enforcers are also investigating an estate owner based in Coorg and certain Tibetan settlers suspected to be part of an international tiger skin smuggling racket centred on Nepal in connection with the seizure.

The confiscated tiger skin is 140-cm long. The tail alone measured 62 cm. An official said the critically endangered animal could have been killed near a watering hole on the Kerala-Karnataka forest border in March this year.

The officials suspect the poachers to have used a crude trap fashioned out of clutch cables and second vehicle parts to ensnare the predator. Preliminary forensic examination of the pelt revealed no bullet wounds.

An official said such "unblemished" tiger skins attracted a higher price in the international black market for wildlife articles.

He said the poachers could have bludgeoned the tiger to death to ensure that its skin remained intact. The pelt was processed using alum, crystallised aluminium potassium sulphate.

Decoy buyer

The undercover operation was launched by Chief Conservator of Forests, Vigilance, C. Balachandran Nair, after District Forest Officer V.K. Sreevalsan received information that at least five tiger skins were up for sale in the highly secretive black market for wildlife trophies.

K. Shajeev, a forest guard with considerable experience in undercover operations, was send as a decoy buyer.

He travelled and socialised for nearly a month with the prospective sellers to gain their confidence. Mr. Shajeev was shown the tiger skin for the first time in the house of the computer student.

The student told him that he could get him elephant tusks, more tiger skins and frozen king cobra venom if their deal materialised. The brokers initially demanded Rs.1.6 lakh for the skin but later agreed to sell for Rs.1.2 lakh.

Poaching up in summer

Official sources said the poaching of tigers and leopards peaked during summer in South Indian forests because it was relatively easy to ambush the big cats near watering holes.

Poachers also used the tumultuous Sabarimala season as a cover to enter the Periyar Tiger Reserve. In January this year, the Forest Department seized the pelts of four recently killed leopards from a poacher in Idukki.

In 2005, two tiger skins were confiscated from poachers in the State. The seizures account for only a fraction of the actual tiger and leopard killings in south India. The poachers, mainly impoverished tribals or forest settlers, get only Rs.10,000 for a tiger skin. It is often the well-connected middleman who profits more, an official said.