(IN): Dhubri NGO rescues fawn from poachers

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Link: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080710/jsp/northeast/story_9528318.jsp

 

*Dhubri NGO rescues fawn from poachers*

OUR CORRESPONDENT

 

*Dhubri, July 9: *Forest department officials caught two persons, Manowar

Ali and Sanowar Ali, red-handed with a captive fawn at Kazigaon under

Gouripur police station in Assam's Dhubri district on Tuesday.

 

The duo were sitting pretty with more than Rs 2,000 between them and a

one-year-old deer when forest officials swooped down on them.

 

Acting on the basis of information provided by Nature's Friends, an NGO,

forest officials of Parbatjhara forest division rescued the deer calf from

Kazigaon last night.

 

Activists of the NGO, though aware of the poaching of deer in Parbatjhara

forest division and selling of venison at the Kazigaon and Gouripur markets

for quite some time, had been unable to do much because of lack of

information.

 

" We had definite information about a deer being kept in the house of one

Manowar Ali at Shantipur village in Kazigaon block. We informed the forest

officials and a team of forest officials and police reached the village and

rescued the fawn with the help of activists of the Sanjivani Welfare

Society, another NGO, " said Kulodhar Das, president of Nature's Friends.

 

Forest officials said this was the first time such a trap had been laid by

an NGO.

 

The deer would have yielded nearly six kg of venison, which would have

fetched anything between Rs 2,000 and Rs 2,500.

 

The secretary of the Sanjivani Welfare Society secretary, Sanjiv Brahma,

said a customer of venison had informed activists of Nature's Friend on

Monday that poachers had approached him to sell deer meat. " Accordingly, we

laid a trap to catch the poachers, " he added.

 

The fawn has been kept at the residence of a Parbatjhora divisional forest

official and will be released in the forest soon.

 

Elsewhere, troops of 4 Kumaon of Double First Brigade rescued a leopard cub

from the clutches of poachers while carrying out operations in East Garo

Hills of Meghalaya a few days back. The troops, operating under Col S.K.

Dutta, commanding officer of 4 Kumaon, rescued the leopard cub, which was

found bundled inside a gunny bag in East Garo Hills.

 

Col Dutta said the poachers apparently fled after seeing the security forces

approach.

 

The cub, when rescued, was in a feeble condition and the jawans nursed it

back to health. The cub was handed over to the Goalpara forest department.

The Goalpara divisional forest officer, Amal Chandra Sarmah, lauded the

army's gesture.

 

 

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