(IN): Arunachal poacher’s body found

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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070430/asp/northeast/story_7716189.asp

 

Arunachal poacher's body found

OUR CORRESPONDENT

 

Itanagar, April 29: Police found the bullet-riddled body of an

unidentified person from Bhalukpong under West Kameng district today.

 

The police suspect the body to be one of two poachers gunned down by

personnel of the anti-poaching squad inside Pakke Tiger Reserve last week.

 

An official of Bhalukpong police outpost said the body bore multiple

bullet marks, which indicates that the person died in an encounter.

" We have informed the forest officials of Pakke Tiger Reserve about

the body. The physical features indicate that the dead man is an

outsider, possibly from Assam, " the official said.

 

Divisional forest officer of Pakke Tiger Reserve Tana Tapi said forest

officials from the tiger reserve would leave for Bhalukpong soon to

identify the body.

 

Members of the anti-poaching squad killed two poachers inside the

reserve forest on April 20. P.D. Majhi, a member of the squad also

died in the encounter. The body of one of the poachers was found the

next day by Seijosa police.

 

Two forest officials, who went to the spot to take stock of the

situation, are probing the incident.

 

Nobody has come forward to claim the bodies, Tapi said.

 

Timber smugglers and poachers have a free run in the jungles of

Arunachal Pradesh. Spread over 862 square km, Pakke Tiger Reserve,

home to the Royal Bengal Tiger, the common and clouded leopard, has

become a safe haven for the criminals, a source said.

 

Last year, an assistant sub-inspector of Assam police, two constables,

one havildar and the driver of the vehicle they were travelling in

were suspended after they were caught with the carcass of a tiger in

Kamengbari of Arunachal Pradesh last August.

 

A forest official said forest reserves like Pakke have become

vulnerable to poachers from neighbouring Assam as hunters, dodging

stricter rules in that state, sneak into the jungles of Arunachal

Pradesh. He said the poachers often lure local youths to work for them.