Rourkela: Forest department officials arrested Thursday a person here and recovered 40 parrots and chicks from his possession. The accused, identified as Tahir Ansari, is a member of an interstate gang which deals in selling of birds. A week back, Forest officials had recovered 82 parrots from another person in this city. The Forest department team led by ACF Shulapani Das along with ranger Prasanna Pradhan raided the house of Ansari near Nuagaon village under Lathikata forest range. The team had prior information that Ansari was in possession of the parrots and chicks. During the raid Ansari initially tried to downplay the entire incident.
However, during interrogation he confessed that he worked for an inter-state gang dealing in selling of parrots in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and cities of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. DFO, Rourkela Forest Division Jasobanth Sethi said that the gang is operational for quite some time now in the area. “We had information that Ansari had captured the parrots. So we conducted a raid and rescued the birds,” Sethi said. Sethi also informed that the gang had employed youths to capture parrots and chicks from the forest and then hand the birds over to Ansari. “He would then send the parrots to various destinations. He had received `10,000 to carry out the job,” Sethi informed. Ansari has been booked under Forest Animal Protection Act U/S-9, 39, 49(b) and 49(c). He was later forwarded to court during the day. However, two other gangmembers who were at Ansari’s house, managed to escape.
