Nabarangpur: Forest department officials in this district seized four leopard hides and arrested six persons on the charge of trading in wildlife body parts.
One pangolin was also rescued from the accused, said Nabarangpur divisional forest officer (DFO) Swayam Mallick addressing newsmen here Wednesday.
All the accused have been produced in a court. Four motorcycles used by the accused were also seized by the forest squad, the DFO said.
Mallick said a series of search and seizure operations were carried out by forest department sleuths over the past few weeks based on specific information.
Four leopard hides and the pangolin were seized while in transit from Chhattisgarh by a special squad of the forest division led by range officer Dhanurjaya Mahapatra and comprising of forester Jagannath Bisoi, forest guards A Manoj, Sunil Behera, Ritesh Suna and other members.
Stating that leopard and pangolin are schedule-I animals as per the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, Mallick said four cases have been registered under Sections 39, 40, 44, 49, 52 and 57 of the Act against the six accused.
The DFO said one leopard hide was seized form Ram Kasyap, two hides were seized from Shiva Sethia and Purotham Thakur and one was seized from Santosh Yadav, all from adjacent Bastar district of Chhattisgarh.
The pangolin was seized from Durjyadhar Sabar and Khetrabasi Mehera of Ekamba village under Kosagumuda block in the district.
In February this year, six leopard hides had been seized by Nabarangpur forest division personnel from the border of Kalahandi and Nabarangpur districts and five persons were arrested in this connection. Besides, as many as 192 Indian soft shelled turtles had been rescued at Chandahandi and one person was arrested by forest officials this month. The turtles were released in Indravati reservoir near here. PTI