(IN) Wildlife SOS recovers leopard skin in raid

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http://www.wildlifesos.org/News/Police%20and%20Wildlife%20SOS%20team/Police%20an\

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In an operation that spanned over several weeks, the Wildlife S.O.S. -

Wildlife Crime Enforcement Unit in Chattisgarh (Central India) worked

closely with the Crime Branch of the Chattisgarh Police to arrest a wildlife

smuggler and confiscate a leopard skin.

 

As India geared up for the 26th January Republic Day celebrations, the

Wildlife SOS team was gearing up for an operation. The team was hot on the

trail of a wildlife poacher cum trader in Sarguja area of North Chattisgarh.

He was trying to sell leopard skins to middlemen.

 

A decoy was sent in to establish contact with the trader and he was put on

surveillance. Immediately after receiving this information the Wildlife

S.O.S team working closely with the Crime Branch of Bilaspur Police drew up

a plan to nab the trader.

 

The decoy customer (an undercover police officer) from the Crime Branch of

Bilaspur established contact with the trader expressing interest in the

contraband. Understandably it took a long time and several meetings to

convince the trader to show him the goods.

 

The trader fixed 26th of January as the date for the deal as he cleverly

guessed that the police and law enforcement agencies would be busy on this

day attending to public celebrations and security duties. But when the team

reached the appointed place there was no body present and after a prolonged

wait the team left the place disappointed.

 

The decoy’s phone rang early in the morning on 6th February 2008. It was the

wildlife smuggler. He was at the Bilaspur Bus stand and would wait for for

the next one hour and if the " customer " was still interested in buying the

contraband, he should come to the place within an hour with the cash. It

took a few minutes for the Wildlife S.O.S team and the Bilaspur Crime Branch

team to get into combat gear. The decoy went to the bus stand and as the

unsuspecting trader met him, he was arrested and a leopard skin measuring

7.6 feet in length seized from his possession.

 

Geeta Seshamani, co founder of Wildlife S.O.S said " Sometimes lady luck

smiles and makes it possible to apprehend such criminals. This man has been

eluding us and the authorities for quite some time. He is currently in the

custody of enforcement agencies who are interrogating him. We hope to make

more arrests soon with his co operation as he seems to have been operating

for a while in these areas,” she added.

 

S.P.Bilaspur, Mr Vivekanad commented, “Bilaspur is surrounded by forests of

the Achanakmar Sanctuary and we get information on poaching and wildlife

trade and other offences related to wildlife and forests. We are committed

to enforcement and working against all crime. So we are bound to do our duty

to wildlife too. We are also grateful for the dedication shown and help

given by the Wildlife SOS team.”

 

Meetu Gupta enforcement officer, Wildlife SOS said " We are sure the man we

have arrested has more leads. Regretfully he comes from a disturbed part of

the state where militancy unrest exists. He has been taking advantage of

this to carry out his nefarious activities. We are confident that with

cooperation between NGOS and enforcement agencies, wildlife trade in the

area can be surely curtailed. We are extremely grateful to

Mr Vivekananda (S.P. Bilaspur), Mr Prabhakar (S.I.Crime branch), Mr Jaiswal

(ASI Crime Branch), and the team of Mr Hemant, Mr Ashok and Mr Balbir for

their continuing dedication and commitment to the cause of wildlife

enforcement.”