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Assam: Rhino horns, elephant tusks, tiger bones seized; five arrested
In the last few months, the forest department in Assam has seized a huge cache of smuggled animal body parts in different operations across the state
Five suspected smugglers were held on Friday with rhino horns, elephant tusks, and tiger bones by the rangers and officials of the Manas National Park.
Rajen Choudhury, field director of the Park told HT that they detained five individuals along with the animal body parts and registered a case in this regard against them under the Wildlife Protection Act.
Choudhary said that the accused were taken to the police, who confessed during the interrogation that they were involved in the killing of two rhinos at the Manas National Park this year.
“They stayed inside the Park for six days and killed rhinos and other wildlife animals. They later sold the rhino horn,” an official said.
“All are residents of surrounding areas of the Park and we suspect that they killed these animals in the past few months. They were planning to sell the bones somewhere outside the state,” Choudhury said.
In the last few months, the forest department in Assam has seized a huge cache of smuggled animal body parts in different operations across the state. In the second week of August, four suspected poachers were arrested near the India-Bhutan border.
On August 17, Assam Police’s Special Task Force (STF) and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) arrested a mother-son duo of suspected traffickers of wildlife creatures from Assam and Meghalaya.
In April this year, three suspected poachers were arrested in Assam’s Barpeta with tiger skins and bones worth Rs.20 lakhs. They had allegedly killed the tiger in Manas Tiger Reserve and tried to sell it to smugglers in another state.
