According to a police officer, the Special Task Force (STF) of the Odisha Police has seized tiger and leopard hides from an alleged smuggler in the Boudh district. This is the second such seizure in the past month.
Himalaya Dash was allegedly negotiating a 10 lakh deal to sell the tiger hide when the police arrested him, according to inspector general (STF) Jai Narayan Pankaj. The arrest resulted in the seizure of Sonepur’s leopard hide.
The discovery came three weeks after the STF arrested two people and removed another tiger hide from the perimeter of the Similipal Tiger Reserve. According to a 2018 census, Similipal had 16 tigers. Poachers shot and killed the tiger there.
According to investigators, Odisha was home to an organised gang of poachers. There are many involved… We will detain everyone responsible, the investigator said while requesting anonymity.
Last year, the STF confiscated two royal Bengal tigers’ hides and 14 leopard hides. In April of last year, a royal Bengal tiger skin measuring nine feet long was also found in Keonjhar.
Since April 2020, poachers have killed at least 12 leopards. Odisha has turned into a transit state for the smuggling of wildlife body parts, as evidenced by the finding of 67 leopard skins during the same time period.
Since the most recent elephant census was conducted in Odisha in 2017, according to wildlife conservationists, the state has lost over 110 male elephants over the age of 15, 80% of which were poached.
‘Poaching is now the biggest threat to elephants and tigers in Odisha. Lax patrolling and lack of convictions in the last two decades have boosted the morale of the poachers. Except for a few cases here and there, poachers have ensured that the ivory, as well as tiger and leopard hides, are safely transported outside the state where it fetches a bigger price,’ Biswajit Mohanty, a wildlife conservationist said.
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