Tiger hide seized in Madhya Pradesh, 4 held

The Times of India , Friday, July 21, 2017
Correspondent : P Naveen
BHOPAL: A tiger hide was confiscated in a joint operation by police and forest officials in Chhindawara district of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday. While four people involved in the crime have been arrested, the kingpin of the syndicate is said to be at large.

Those arrested have been identified as Sandeep alias Monu, 22, of Usaria village, Rajesh, 33, of Sagargaon, Ramkumar 33, and Abhijit alias Matru of 30 Purana Power house.

Police had a tip-off on Friday about these people as they were looking for gullible customers to sell the tiger hide. A team was constituted by Chhindwara SP Gaurav Tiwari and DFO (south) R P Tripathi. Trap was laid and the accused were arrested. "This hide seems to be around three months old," said Tripathi.

Officials have sent pictures of its stripes for further identification. During interrogation, the accused said that they had got this hide from one Avinash. "Efforts are being made to arrest him," said the DFO. He said that it was undoubtedly a tiger cub and the hide is around 117 cm long. All five have been booked under different sections of Wildlife Protection Act 1972.

However, some of the wildlife experts who saw the confiscated hide doubt its authenticity. "It can be a dog skin with stripes painted on it. Cons usually do this to dupe witch hunters," said an expert wishing anonymity.

Chhindwara is closely connected with tiger reserves in Maharashtra. In 2014 this district was listed among one of the 73 districts identified as tiger poaching hotspots in a latest study conducted by Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) and Snow Leopard Trust.

The study - Tiger poaching and trafficking in India - estimated rates of occurrence and detection over four decades by wildlife biologist Koustubh Sharma and Belinda Wright, Tito Joseph, Nitin Desai of WPSI, while attempting to ascertain the probability of occurrence of tiger crime and detection between 1972 and 2012 in the 605 districts of India.

Experts had tested the hypotheses that tiger crime is influenced by the presence of tiger trade hubs, proximity to a number of tiger habitats, and that tiger poachers prefer to use rail routes over highways.

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/tiger-hide-seized-in-madhya-pradesh-4-held/articleshow/59718307.cms
 


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