BHOPAL: After a month's investigation, Special Task force (STF) of the Madhya Pradesh state forest department not only confiscated hide of the radio-collared tiger poached from Satpura Tiger Reserve (STR) but also concluded that it was killed on the superstition that it would make the accused rich.
Thirteen people, including a government school teacher of Chhindwara district, have been arrested so far.
Their interrogations revealed that the Tiger was killed for witchcraft by the teacher - Ram Kishore - under influence of a self-styled sorcerer named Sitararam Chouhan.
Chouhan had promised Ram Kishore that he can make him rich by performing secret rituals, but for that, he has to sit on a tiger skin.
Ram Kishore believed his claims and killed the Tiger by poisoning its kill with the help of poachers, said a forest officer.
"We have confirmed that this hide is of radio-collared Tiger that was translocated from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve to STR," principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) Narendra Kumar told TOI.
Accused had not only killed the Tiger but also extracted oil from fat for using it as remedy for joint aches and erectile dysfunction, said sources.
In a joint operation, STF of state's forest department and Satpura Tiger Reserve (STR) had confiscated two bottles of suspected Tiger fat oil from the poaching network. Oil was seized from Srivas of Sakhai village in Hoshangabad and Yunus from Itarsi. Both were arrested along with 10 other poachers during a month-long operation.
Samples have been sent to Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB) Hyderabad and Wildlife Health Monitoring Centre (WHMC), Jabalpur, for DNA analysis. Different teams have been dispatched to Delhi and other areas for more arrests in the Tiger poaching case. Besides oil, officials have also sent bone samples for verification.
Inputs on killing of a Tiger surfaced during interrogation of a gang of Pangolin poachers arrested by STF officials from Sakai village this week. The village is located in the tiger reserve's core area.
Thirteen people, including a former village sarpanch were arrested during routine patrolling by forest guards. Spear and pangolin scales were seized from them.
During interrogation, one of the accused told STF officials they had also killed a Tiger by poisoning its kill near Sakai village and it had a radio-collar. STR officials believe these poachers are connected to an international poaching syndicate with roots in MP, UP and Maharashtra.
