GUWAHATI: Manas National Park authority and police recovered a tiger skin and arrested three persons on Tuesday in connection with poisoning of a big cat last week.
The recovery was made from Betbari, an encroached area under Bhuyapara range of the park.
The forest and police team got the tip-off of the tiger skin following the arrest of one NDFB surrendered militant BulagraBasumatary on Sunday.
Park director H K Sarma said that Basumatary was also wanted by police in case of arms snatching from Agrang forest camp of Manas about three years ago.
"During interrogation the surrendered NDFB militant revealed about the tiger skin hidden by him and his accomplices," Sarma said.
Park sources said that the encroached areas of Manas are becoming major conservation threat to Manas which got back World Heritage Site status in 2011 after remaining in Unesco's danger list from 1992.
They said that in the past also encroachers were involved in rhino poaching and other wildlife crime.
Manas, also a tiger reserve in Bodoland Territorial Area District, is a contiguous landscape of Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan.
The poisoning of the tiger took place at a time when big cats are making a come back in the Manas landscape including Bhutan. Latest monitoring by the Transboundary Manas Conservation Area, a joint initiative by India and Bhutan, found 21-tigers in the landscape.
