A joint team of STF, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau Delhi and SOG of Terai East Forest Division Haldwani arrested 4 vicious wildlife smugglers from Khatima area on Saturday night and recovered 1 tiger skin and about 15 kg tiger bone from their possession. The recovered skin of the tiger is 11 feet. The four arrested smugglers are residents of Dharchula in Pithoragarh district and were involved in wildlife organ smuggling for a long time. STF received confidential information that four vicious smugglers were coming towards Khatima in a white colored Bolero jeep, on which the joint team laid siege and stopped them near Khatima toll plaza. On search, a huge amount of tiger skin and bones were recovered from inside the vehicle. The arrested smugglers told the STF during interrogation that they had brought the skin and bone of the tiger from a person resident of Kashipur and were taking it to Khatima for sale today.
Information is being sought regarding the criminal history of the accused. Against the caught smugglers, the Terai Eastern Forest Division was registered under the Wildlife Protection Act in Khatima. Detailed interrogation of the accused is being done by the STF regarding smuggling. Constables Mahendra Giri and Kishore Kumar played a special role in this action of STF. It was told by SSP STF Ayush Aggarwal that for the past several days, STF was receiving information about poaching of wildlife from the forests of Kumaon, on which the Kumaon unit was deployed.
Today, our team has conducted a joint operation with Wildlife Delhi and Khatima Forest team and 4 wildlife smugglers have been arrested with a huge amount of wildlife organs, this is the biggest tiger skin so far whose length is about 11 feet, where and when such a big tiger was hunted, complete information is being collected by STF.
Details of arrested accused:-
1. Krishna Kumar s/o Veer Ram, resident of Village Garden, Police Station Dharchula, District Pithoragarh
2. Gajendra Singh s/o Bhagat Singh, resident of Gothi Kalika, Police Station Dharchula, District Pithoragarh
3.Sanjay Kumar s/o Nandan Ram, resident of Gothi Kalika, Police Station Dharchula, District Pithoragarh
4. Harish Kumar s/o Sher Ram, resident of Gothi Kalika, Police Station Dharchula, District Pithoragarh.
Details of seizure-
1. 01 tiger skin – length 11 feet
2. About 15 kg of tiger bones
3. One Bolero Jeep Number UK05TA2815
Arrest Team STF Kumaon Unit
1. Inspector M.P.Singh
2. U.N.I.K.G.Mathpal
3. U.N. Brijbhushan Gururani
4. Chief Constable Mahendra Giri
5. Chief Constable Kishore Kumar
6. Head Constable Durga Singh Papda
7. Constable Gurwant Singh
8. Constable Driver Sanjay Kumar
Terai Eastern Forest Division, Haldwani Team–
1. Kailash Chandra Tiwari – Deputy Ranger
2 Pramod Singh Bisht – Deputy Ranger
3. Paan Singh Mehta – Forest Inspector
4. Nirmal Rawat – Forest Inspector
5. Uttam Singh Rana – Forest Inspector
6. Jeet Prakash – Forest Guard
