Rourkela: Forest officials have successfully busted a racket involved in the illegal trading of wild birds and animals through social media. The Forest Department Thursday arrested one Saroj Kumar Badaik (32) at Bisra and recovered two common hill mynas from his possession. Badaik, an engineering graduate, was running an illegal animal-selling racket using YouTube as the platform for this purpose.
Addressing the media persons, Rourkela DFO Jasobant Sethi informed that the department had received tip-offs about this activity. Badaik’s source for the collection of birds was Raipur and Ranchi. He had earlier brought turkeys and ducks from there and sold those to his customers. “He was using YouTube as the platform to attract customers. He would show these birds on his channel and would get contacted by the customers,” informed the DFO.
Officials of the department established contact with him and asked for the two seized birds. And the deal was finalised for Rs 14,000. Rs 5000 was deposited to his account as advance payment and he asked the two officials to meet him near Biju Pattnaik Indoor Stadium. An unsuspecting Badaik was soon arrested with the two birds. The DFO informed that further investigation was underway to unravel more about the case and did not want to divulge any other information
