Jharigaon: Forest department officials at Jharigaon in Odisha’s Nabarangpur district arrested four wildlife smugglers Friday night as they rescued 176 live turtles from their possession. The turtles were illegally being smuggled from Kalahandi to Nabarangpur district.
The arrested wildlife criminals were identified as Digambar Gopal, 29, of Gotamunda village under Amapani police limits, Dharam Chalan, 40, Trilochan Chalan, 38, and Gaganeswar Nayak, 36, who are residents of Sargiguda village under Jayapatana police limits in Kalahandi district.
Acting on a tip-off about the illegal activities in Kangra forest area under Jharigaon Forest department, a team of Forest officials including Jharigaon forest ranger Gobinda Chandra Nayak, forester Gupta Prasad Mohanty and forest guards M Babaji Rao and Ramakanta Sahu conducted a night patrol Friday night. Around 8:30pm they found four youths carrying something in sacks on two bikes (CG 04- DP-6241 and OD 08- R-3265) and stopped them.
During checking the Forest officials rescued 176 live turtles from their possession. They were then brought to Jharigaon forest office for interrogation. On the other hand, ranger Gobinda Chandra said that investigations are on to find the network of the smuggling racket as it is suspected that rare turtles are being smuggled to other states.
PNN
